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I Tenth Edition— Revised and corrected, with an Appendix, 



^ 



ANCIENT 



.HER MONUMENTS 



HISTORY AND 



AND OTHER SUBJECTS 



HIEROGLYPHICAL 



BY GEORGE R. GLIDDON, 



NEW- YORK : 

WM. TAYLOR &, CO., 

No. 2, ASTOR HOUSE. 

London: 
WILEY & PUTNAM. 



SINGLE COPIES 




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EGYPT. 



HIEROGLYPHICS, 



ARCHEOLOGY, 



CONNECTED WITH 



LITERATURE 



LATE U. 8. CONSUL AT CAIRO. 



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TWENTY-FIVE CENTS 



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ANCIENT EGYPT. 

Tenth Edition — Revised and corrected, with an Appendix. 

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No. 2, ASTOR HOUSE, NEW- YORK ; AND JARVIS BUILDING, BALTIMORE. 



STEREOTYPE EDITION. 



January, 1847 



PRICE 25 CENTS. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



A SERIES OF CHAPTERS ON 

EARLY EGYPTIAN HISTORY, 
ARCHEOLOGY, 

AND OTHER SUBJECTS 

CONNECTED WITH 

HIEROGLYPHICAL LITERATURE. 



BY GEORGE R. GLIDDON, 

MEMBER CF THE " EGYPTIAN SOCIETY " OF CAIRO— CORRESPONDING 
MEMBER OF THE " UNITED STATES' NAVAL LYCEUM," BROOKLYN, 

NEW YORK CORRESPONDENT OF THE " ACADEMY OF NATURAL 

SCIENCES," PHILADELPHIA CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF 

THE " NATIONAL INSTITUTION," WASHINGTON 

MEMBER OF THE " ORIENTAL SOCIETY," 
BOSTON, 
AND FORMERLY 

UNITED STATES CONSUL FOR CAIRO, 

IN EGYPT. 



" dui si fii quel che si sa; 
E si sa quel che si fa.*' 




9999 r\c\r\n 

?9?S> 1 I 1 



* 



uonii 
i i in 



YEAR 1843 MONTH 3 DAY 15. 



RICHARD K. HAIGHT, Esq.: 

NEW YORK. 

In dedicating to you, my dear Sir, the first Chapters on Hierology, 
that have ever issued from an American Press, I acquit myself of a 
gratifying duty toward a gentleman who, by the deep interest he 
ta-kes in Egyptian subjects, has been induced to render manifold 
and indispensable assistance to the Author. 

When we parted at Cairo, in the spring of 1836, we little ex- 
pected that circumstances would allow me the pleasure of sojourning 
in your vicinity ; still less did we contemplate, that I should turn my 
almost exclusive attention to Nilotic paleography. Some of the 
causes are hereinafter explained; with the others you are acquainted. 



At the time of your travels in the East, our " Egyptian Society " 
had just been founded at Cairo ; and the encouragement afforded by 
Mr. Randolph and yourself, to our then embryo institution, is there 
on record. Since that period, our Society has become in Egypt, the 
central point of researches into all that concerns its most interesting 
regions ; but, it was not till 1839, that the larger works of the new 
Archaeological School were in our library ; or that it was in my 
power to become one of Champollion's disciples. In fact, it was 
not till about 1839, that the brilliant results of the recent, and still 
progressing discoveries were accessible in Egypt ; while, at the 
present day, the knowledge of these results is confined to a compa- 
ratively limited circle in Europe. A mass of erudite works, put 
forth by eminent Savans, chiefly at the expense of enlightened gov- 
ernments, have teemed of late years from the European press, and 
the most important of these (Rosellini and others) now embellish 
your Library. 

It is to the effective aid, and fostering counsel of our mutual 
friend, Richard Randolph, Esq., of Philadelphia, and yourself, that 
the public in this country are indebted, for whatever of value and 
novel interest may be found in this unpretending essay ; and, through 
these marks of consideration is the Author enabled, to present to the 
American people, some of the more salient points of recent Hiero. 
glyphical discoveries, in a form corresponding to his free-trade 
principles. 

Our united object is to popularize information, that may tend to a 
better appreciation of these abstruse subjects, than has hitherto been 
deemed feasible ; as well as to induce abler hands to supply defi- 
ciencies. 

These Chapters will, it is believed, serve the Theologian, Ethno- 
logist, Historian, and general reader, as a Key to the successful la- 
bors of the Champollionists ; while their publication and general 
diffusion, through the elaborate machinery of the " New World " 
press, will enable the lecturer to spare his future audiences the oral 
infliction of much preliminary, though indispensable matter, by re- 
moving the prevalent doubts — "if Hieroglyphics be translated." 

The instruction and kind assistance I have received from the 
learned ethnographer, Samuel George Morton, Esq., M. D., of 
Philadelphia, and from the profound philologist, the Hon Jjhn 
Pickering, of Boston, have been severally acknowledged. To Pro- 
fessor Charles Anthon, of Columbia College, I am under great 
obligations, for much classical information, and for free access to 
his valuable Library. 

As the matter, spread over the following pages, was originally 
prepared for delivery in oral Lectures, it has required some labor to 
change it into its present form ; and for suggestions on this point, 
as well as for many literary essentials, I owe my best thanks to my 
friend, E. S. Gould, Esq., of this city. 

In their pristine shape of Lectures, they were, during December 
and January last, listened to with much indulgence, by an intel- 
lectual and cultivated audience, in Boston, and spoken of with favor 
by the Press of that city. 

• For the advantages accruing from this successful "debut," I shall 
ever preserve a grateful remembrance toward Joseph W. Ingraham, 
Esq., the well informed Topographer of Palestine ; whose disin. 
terested cooperation was of material assistance to me. 

With renewed protestations of sincere attachment, 
I remain, dear Sir, 

Your obliged and obedient Servant, 

GEORGE R. GLIDDON. 

" Globe Hotel," (New York,) March 15, 1843. 



NOTE TO THE PRESENT EDITION. 

Baltimore, 15th March, 1S45. 
.The seven " Chapters," herein contained, originally formed part of a series of thirteen oral Lectures on " Early Egyptian History," &c, 
delivered by the Author at Boston, from December 184?, to February 1843. They were subsequently presented to the American Public, 
through the medium of the "New World" press in New York, and have since passed through many editions of several thousand each. 
The objects of the Author, in the publication of the Pamphlet, being set forth In the dedicatory preface, it seems merely necessary to 
observe, that he has no pecuniary interest in its past or future circulation. Messrs. W«. Taylor & Co. having become proprietors of the 
Stereotype Plates by purchase from the "New World," publish the present edition, wherein many typographical corrections have been 
made ; while pages 45 and 46 have been recast, in order to embody the matured results of Dr. S. G. Morton's " Crania iEgyptrca," 
published at Philadelphia in March, 1844. G. R. G. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



A SERES OF CHAPTERS ON EARLY EGYPTIAN HISTORY, 

&C. &.C. &c. 



CHAPTER FIRST. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

" Amicus Socrates, Amicus Plato, sed magis Arnica Veritas." 
The great Expedition, that, in 1798, left the shores of France for 
Egypt, seemed, under the guidance of the mighty genius of Napoleon, 
destined to create an Oriental Empire, wherein the children of the 
Frank and Gaul would have sustained a supremacy over the North- 
western provinces of Asia and Africa, equal to that which has been 
established in the Eastern Hemisphere, by the Anglo-Saxon race. 
This enterprise was, however, fated to encounter obstacles, that, in 
1800-1, turned the energies of Buonaparte into an European channel. 
How comprehensive, nay unbounded, were the projects of the 
Commander-in-chief for Asiatic and African conquest, is now a mat- 
ter of History ; although, after the lapse of forty years, it can scarcely 
yet be said, that we are acquainted with the limit of his matured 
schemes in regard to Oriental subjugation, nor have we completely 
Bounded the depths of his penetration into Eastern political futurities. 
By the hand of inscrutable Providence, the sword of another Euro- 
pean nation was thrown into the opposite scale ; and the French 
Expedition to Egypt lives but in the memories of its few surviving 
actors — its military objects unaccomplished — its territorial aggrand- 
izements unattained — though the moral effect, consequent on these 
events, and now implanted in the minds of Eastern Nations, can 
never be obliterated. 

In the quiet of his cabinet, as in the turmoil of political conflict, 
Napoleon never forgot the cause of Science, or the patronage and ad- 
vancement of Literature and the Arts ; and, amid the roar of his 
artillery, or the martial music of his camps, his mandate prompted, 
and his eye controlled the savans of France, while his finger directed 
their laborious efforts to the scrutiny of Egypt and her Monuments. 

The grave has closed over the Conqueror — the events of his period 
are gradually receding from the memory of man, to survive on the 
page of the chronicler ; but an impetus was given to Egyptian re- 
search by Napoleon — an impress was stamped by him on Hiero- 
glyphical studies, for which time will award him commensurate honor. 
We are now only beginning to derive a portion of the advantages 
accruing, from these events, to our inquiries into Early History. 
Ages yet slumbering in the womb of time, and generations yet un- 
born will perhaps enjoy the full effulgence of that light, of which, in 
our day, but the first gleams have reached the world. 

The circumambient darkness, that for two thousand years not only 
baffled every inquiry into primeval history, but rendered Egypt, her 
time-worn edifices, her ancient inhabitants, their religion, arts, sci- 
ences, institutions, learning, language, history, conquests and domin- 
ion, almost incomprehensible mysteries, has now been broken ; and 
the translation of the sacred Legends, sculptured on monumental ves- 
tiges of Pharaonic glory, enables us now to define and to explain, 
with tolerable accuracy, these once-recondite annals, that were to the 
Romans " a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." 



It is the object of the present essay to give a summary of the re- 
sults of Hicroglyphical researches, after a brief explanation of the 
process by which these results have been achieved. 



Prior to the year 1800, the published notices of the few travellers, 
who had ventured to approach the ancient ruins of Egypt, were so 
confused in description, so ambiguous in detail, so erroneous in at- 
tempts at explaining their origin and design, that the fact, that these 
monuments merited more than ordinary investigation, was the only 
point on which European savans were able to coincide. Paul Lucas, 
Shaw, Volney, Savary, Norden, Sonnini, Pococke, Clarke, Maillet, 
Bruce and others, whose names are precious to the lovers of adven- 
ture, of research and general science, had explored as much as their 
respective circumstances permitted ; and great are the merits of their 
works : but the accumulation of knowledge, gained in the lapse of 
half a century, has so thoroughly revolutionized opinion, that it is 
scarcely possible to refer to the majority of these authors without a 
smile. That victim of ignorance and slander, the enthusiastic Bruce, 
is perhaps the most prominent exception to the above rule ; although 
only now receiving the mournful tribute of respect and gratitude, 
with which a later generation hallows his memory, while it repro- 
bates his detractors. 

The works of travellers, before the year 1800, had done little be- 
yond establishing the existence of immense vestiges of antiquity in 
that country, without affording much else of value in regard to them. 
Egypt, under the turbulent government of the Memlooks, was unsafe 
to strangers; while Muslim arrogance and intolerancy, with the 
then-unsubdued pride of Turkish fanaticism, presented barriers to 
European explorers, which it required unusual skill and intrepidity 
to encounter. Egypt was then " a sealed book," whose pages could 
not be opened, until Napoleon's thunderbolts had riven the clasps 



asunder ; and until the chivalrous cavalry of the " Ghuz "* had been 
scattered, like chaff before the wind, by the concentrated volleys of 
a French hollow square — their hitherto victorious sabres shivering on 
contact with the European bayonet. 

While however, in spite of these manifold obstacles, the travelling 
enthusiast, or the scientific explorer, collected in the talley of the 
Nile the information, which afforded to the scholar in Europe some 
crude and uncertain materials wherewith to prosecute his researches; 
the occasional transmission to European cabinets of some relics of 
Egyptian civilization, furnished evidences of the immense progress,, 
which, at an ancient, but then undefined, period, had been made in 
all arts and sciences by the Egyptians. With the aid of such cor- 
roborations of the misshapen mass of classical knowledge, expended, 
from the days of Homer, in an attempted explanation of Egyptian 
Archaeology, the attention of the most learned of all nations was di. 
rected to the Antiquities of Egypt; and, although in Europe these 
particular inquiries recommenced probably about three hundred years 
ago ; yet the 18th century was fruitful, beyond all preceding periods, 
in ponderous tomes, purporting more or less to cast some light on 
the important, but conflicting traditions of that country. 

The Greek, the Hebrew, the Roman, the Armenian, the Indian, 
and the Coptic authorities were consulted. Passages, in themselves 
irreconcileable, were with more ingenuity than success collated, ana- 
lyzed, and mutually adjusted : but rather to the personal satisfaction 
of the compiler, than to the correct elucidation of any one given 
idea on Ancient Egypt, transmitted to us by these classical writers. 
Still, the spirit of inquiry was awakened ; the lamp of investigation 
was partially lighted ; the learned world became gradually more and 
more familiarized with the subject; and, at the present hour, if we 
laugh at the conclusions at which some of these students arrived, we 
must still render to them full credit for the profundity of their futile 
investigations, and admire the patient perseverance and resolution 
with which they grappled with mysteries, the solution whereof was 
to them as hopeless in expectation, as abortive in success. 

Vain would it be, without ransacking the libraries of every civi- 
lized country, and selecting from their dusty shelves the vast accu- 
mulation of works, published by the learned and the unlearned during 
the last three centuries, to attempt a detailed specification of the ex- 
traordinary aberrations of human intellect ; those manifold and 
incomprehensible misconceptions on Ancient Egypt ; that, at the 
present hour, excite our surprise and our regret. The mere mechan- 
ical labor of such an undertaking would be more tedious than any 
literary enterprise we can well conceive ; while its result would be 
unprofitable, beyond the moral it would teach. In the present Chap- 
ters, a very few of such sapient illusions are enumerated ; affording, 
however, but a faint idea of their huge amount : and it may be laid 
down as a rule, without exception prior to the year 1790, that no ori- 
ginal light is to be obtained from European authors of the last gener- 
ation, whose works are merely repetitions of the few truths and the 
many fallacies transmitted to us by Greco-Roman antiquity. The 
following paragraphs will give a general view of the case. 

In the year 1636, a learned Jesuit, the celebrated Father Kircher,t 
published a mighty work, in six ponderous folios, entitled " CEdipus 
iEgyptiacus," wherein imagination took the place of common sense, 
and fantastic conjecture was substituted for fact. Kircher explained 
every Egyptian Hieroglyphic by the application of a sublimity of 
mysticism, from which to the ridiculous the transition is immediate. 
Dark and impenetrable as had been the " Isiac Veil," before Kir- 
cher directed his gigantic efforts to its removal, we do him but justice 
in declaring, that he succeeded in enveloping Egyptian studies with 
an increased density of gloom, it has taken nearly two hundred years 
to dissipate ! Kircher had his disciples, his followers and his ad- 
mirers — he founded a school of mysticism, in which the students out- 
vied their master in love of the incomprehensible; and, abandoning 
the simplest elements of reason and sound criticism, they all pre- 
tended to discover, or to have the hope of finding, in the Papyri, 
Obelisks, Idols, Mummy Cases, Weapons, household utensils, &c. of 
the Ancient Egyptians, all the recondite combinations of cabalistic 
science, and the monstrous reveries "of a demonomania the most 
refined." As an instance : 

The Pamphilian Obelisk, reerected, in 1651, in the Piazza Navona 
at Rome by Pope Innocent the 10th, was brought to Europe by the 
Roman Emperors. It contains, among other subjects, the following 
oval. 



-REDTJCTION- 




U T o K 



(Phonetic 
~~> m tfijuf «^~ ~^ Hiero- 
glyphics.) 

(Latin pro- 
R A T O K nunciation.) 

(English 
meaning.) 



This Cartouche, according to Kircher's interpretation expressed 
emblematically, " the author of fecundity and of all vegetation, is 
Osiris, of which the generative faculty is drawn from heaven into 



'■ /.rabice— Memlooks. 



t See Champ. Precis, and Spineto's Lectures. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



his kingdom, by the Saint Moptha." And who is this Saint Mop- I ™ , ,. , . «, , . , „ 

tha ? An Egyptian genius invented by Kircher himself! The same obehsk c °ntams the following oval 



also— viz. 




-REDUCTION- 



-TM-V— JMfc 



K AiSaRoS ToMTTiANoSSeBaS ToS 

CESAR DOMITIAN AUGUSTUS. 



Kircher translates it—" The beneficent Being, who presides over 
generation, who enjoys heavenly dominion, and fourfold power, com- 
mits the atmosphere, by means of Moptha, the beneficent (principle 
of?) atmospheric humidity unto Amnion, most powerful over the 
lower parts (of the world,) who, by means of an image and appro- 
priate ceremonies, is drawn to the exercising of his power." (!) 

The Pamphilian obelisk contains in its legends " Son of the Sun, 
Lord of the Diadems (i. e. Ruler of Rulers) Autocrator Caesar Domi- 
tian Augustus" — besides the usual titles found on Egyptian Obelisks. 
These monuments are granite monoliths, cut by order of the kings 
of Egypt ; and were placed, always in pairs, before the entrances of 
temples or palaces, to record that such kings had built, increased in 
extent, repaired, or otherwise embellished these edifices. This was, 
however, cut at Syene, in Roman times, in honor of Domitian. 

According even to a more recent authority, quoted in the Precis, 
of the year 1821 (!) " Genoa-Arch ipiscopal press," this identical 
obelisk " preserves the record of the triumph over the Impious, ob- 
tained by the adorers of the most Holy Trinity, and of the Eternal 
Word, under the government of the 6th and 7th kings of Egypt, in 
the 6th century after the deluge." 

This obelisk was cut in Egypt about eighty years after Christ. 
By the above interpretation, the doctrines of Christianity must have 
existed some 2500 years before its founder. And one of the pious 
adorers and good Christians, who must thus have ruled in Egypt, 
was, in later times, (about 970 B. C.) Shishak — or Siieshonk, who, 
according to hieroglyphical legends at Karnac, conquered the " king- 
dom of Judah ;" and, according to 2nd Chron. XII, 1st to 10th ver- 
ses, and 1st Kings, XIV. 25th, deposed Rehoboam, plundered Jerusa- 
lem, desecrated the Temple, and removed the golden bucklers from the 
sanctuary with the treasures of the house of David ! 

Again, in 1812, the learned mystagogue, Chevalier de Palin, 
boldly undertook the deciphering of all Egyptian hieroglyphics, and 
asserts to the effect, that we have only to translate the Psalms of Da- 
vid into Chinese, and transpose them into the ancient characters of 
that language, to reproduce the Egyptian papyri ! that Hebrew 
translations of some Egyptian records are to be found in the Bible (!) 
and, while the portico of the temple of Dendera contains, among 
various subjects, dedications of the Roman Emperors, Tiberius, Cali- 
gula, Claudius and Nero (dating between the years 14 and 60 after 
Christ,) another theorist, Count Caylus, combining what he terms the 
" Symbols of Nations" in Africa, Asia, Europe, and America, ap- 
plied his results to this unfortunate temple ; asserting, that the hiero- 
glyphics thereon contain merely a " translation of the 100th Psalm 
of David, composed to invite the people to enter into the temple of 
God." 

Others have maintained, that the hieroglyphic legends, sculptured 
and painted on every temple of Egypt, in all the tombs of her people, 
and on almost every article that now embellishes the museums of 
Europe, are nothing more or less than Hebrew — that the pyramids 
were built by Moses and Aaron ;* while another scholar, the Abbe" 
Tandeau, in 1762, maintained, that hieroglyphics were mere arbi. 
trary signs, only employed to serve as ornaments to the edifices on 
which they are engraved, and that they were never invented to pic- 
ture ideas. 

Yet these illusions were not unproductive of some advantages. 
Some faint glimmers were thrown on certain points of history ; and 
Kircher's voluminous collection of passages regarding Egypt from 
Greek and Roman authors, with the attention excited, through his 
researches into the Coptic tongue (of which language numbors of 
manuscripts have since been drawn from obscurity,) has led to most 
important results. The vast erudition of Jablonsky came in aid of 
the same object ; and his " Pantheon JEgyptiorum" has spared 
many of his successors a great deal of trouble. 

It may, however, be maintained, that the first real step made into 
hieroglyphical arcana, is to be dated from 1797, when the learned 
Dane, George Zoega, published at Rome his folio, " De Origine et 
Usu Obeliscorum," explanatory of the Egyptian obelisks. It was 
tlie first time, that learning and practical common sense had been 
united in Egyptian researches ; and likewise the first time, that an 



*3ee Calmct's Dictionary, I. c. 



attempt had been made to give facsimile copies of hieroglyphica 
texts. George Zoega was the first who suggested, that the elliptical 
ovals (now termed " Cartouches,") containing groups of then-un- 
known characters, were probably proper names; although he wa. 
not aware, that (with the exception of a few instances, wherein they 
contain the names of Deities) they exclusively inclose the titles oi. 
names of Pharaohs. A similar idea was maintained, I believe, bj 
the Abbe" Barthelemy ; but a quarter of a century elapsed, before 
this fundamental principle of hieroglyphic writing was determined. 
To George Zoega also belongs the merit of employing the terra 
phonetic (from the Greek <&ovti meaning " expressive of sound ;") 
and the conjecture, that some of the figures of animals, &c, found 
in the legends of Egypt, must represent sounds, and were possibly 
letters. 

By such, and similar extremely partial results, so wearied had the 
learned become with speculations devoid of probability, and theoret- 
ical systems unsupported by reason, that Egyptian studies were, by 
the mass, considered as unsatisfactory as astrology — the hope of ever 
unravelling the legends of the Nilotic Valley, was looked upon to bo 
as illusory as the expectations of the alchemist. 

The real progress in Egyptian studies dates from the appearance 
of the great French work, better known as the " Description 
de l'Egypte ;" compiled at the expense of the French government, 
after the return to France of Napoleon's expedition, by the enthusi 
astic and laborious savans who had accompanied it. This truly 
great work presented, for the first time, faithful architectural copies 
of the monuments of Egypt to the student : and if experience has 
since shown that the French artists, of that day, were not scrupu- 
lously exact in delineating the hieroglyphical legends sculptured on 
the edifices, of which they gave measurements and descriptions in 
other respects correct, still a mass of facsimiles was thus furnished to 
the decipherer, and an immense step was effected in general Egyp- 
tian knowledge. 

The museums of Europe, in the mean time, were continually re- 
ceiving additions of antiquarian relics from the shores of the Nile. 
The " jEgyptiaca" of the learned Hamilton threw, with the prece- 
ding antiquities, a flood of light upon the " darkness" of Egypt, as 
known to Europeans in the first years of the 19 th century : while the 
return of the victors at Abookeer and Alexandria, spread through- 
out Europe, a clearer conception of Egypt, as a country, than had 
previously been entertained. 

Other works, like that of Denon, kept up the revived interest ; 
until Belzoni's discoveries of entrances to divers pyramids at Mem- 
phis, and of the tomb celebrated by his name at Thebes (now known 
as that of " Osirei-Menephtha,"B. C. 1580 ;) and Cailleaud's account 
of the pyramids, &c. in Ethiopia, joined to the continued transfer to 
European cabinets of vast collections of Egyptian Antiquities, fur- 
nished to scholars the materials whereon to prosecute their investi- 
gations. In 1808, the learned work of Quatremerc, Recherches, &c, 
demonstrated, that " the Coptic tongue was identical with the Egyp- 
tian" language, handed down from mouth to mouth, and graphically 
in Greek characters, with the addition of seven signs taken, as sub- 
sequently shown, from the enchorial writings. The Coptic, as 
known to us, came into use with Christianity, and ceased to be orally 
preserved about a hundred years ago ; though, as a dead language, 
it is still used in the Coptic Christian liturgies in Egypt. The mul- 
titude of Greek and Latin inscriptions, existing in edifices along the 
Nile, with Greek, and a few bilinguar fragments and papyri, col- 
lected in various countries, enabled the classical Greek antiquary, 
Mons. Letronne, to bring before the world his invaluable "Researches 
to aid the History of Egypt," and thus elucidate many curious points 
of Roman and Ptolemaic periods ; while Champollion's " Egypt under 
the Pharaohs," in 1814, announced the appearance of another com- 
petitor on the stage of Egyptian archaeology, whom Proviiicncc seems 
to have created the especial instrument for resuscitating the long 
lost annals of Egypt. With these laborers may be classed (although 
their travels took place, and their works appeared some years after) 
the ingenious Gou, who explored Lower Nubia, and the Baron 1\I;- 
nutoli, who visited Egypt, and the templed sanctuary of Jupitel 
Anion, in the Oasis of Scewah. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



Such was the extent of modern inquiry into early Egyptian his- 
tory, about the year 1820, as known to the general reader : but for- 
tuitous circumstances, consequent upon the French expedition, had 
combined to supply not only the key to all the hitherto impenetrable 
mysteries of Egypt, but the mind to comprehend, the soul to master, 
and the hand to execute more, in ten short years, than all mankind 
had even dreamed of, much less been able in twenty centuries to 
achieve. I allude, of course, to CitAMroLLioN LE Jeune. 

By the 16th article of the capitulation of Alexandria, all the objects 
collected by the French Institute of Egypt, and other members of 
the expedition, were to be delivered up to the British. After some 
discussion, Lord Hutchinson gave up all claim to objects of Natural 
History, but insisted on the complete fulfilment of the 16th article, 
as to all other things. A vast amount of precious sculptures thus 
became the prize of the conquerors, and was conveyed in due course 
to the British Museum in London; and among others the celebrated 
Rosetta Stone. 

I am indebted for the facsimile copy of this invaluable monu- 
ment, in my possession, to the kindness of the Hon. John Pickering, 
of Boston, whose profound philological researches are justly cele- 
brated, while they have induced him to keep pace with Champol- 
hon's discoveries in ancient Egyptian literature. My friend, Dr. 
T. H. Webb, likewise of Boston, possesses a beautiful plaster cast 
ot the original stone ; and as I am on this point, I would observe, 
that the best critical examination of the hieroglyphic portion of the 
Rosetta Stone, published up to 1841, may be seen in Salvolini's 
"Analysis of various Hieroglyphical Texts," issued at Paris, some 
six years ago. Professor Rosellini hints that his analysis of this Text 
will be a consequence of his work. 

To give an idea of the Rosetta Stone, I annex the following 
diagram : 




The dotted line at the top shows what was probably its original 
tabular form, when it was placed in the temple. 

Thi3 inestimable fragment (the Rosetta Stone) consists in a block 
of black basalt, which was discovered by a French officer of engi- 
neers, Mons. Bouchard, in August 1799, when digging the founda- 
tions of Fort St. Julien, erected on the western bank of the Nile, 
between Rosetta and the sea, not far from the mouth of the river. 
It was placed by the British commander-in-chief, on board the frigate 
" Egyptienne," captured in the harbor of Alexandria, and arrived at 
Portsmouth in February, 1802, whence it was deposited in the Brit- 
ish Museum. 

In its present state it is much mutilated, chiefly on the top, and at 

lit side. Its extreme length is about three feet, measured on 

ii flat surface, which contains the writing; its breadth, which in 

parts is entire is about two feet five inches. The under part 



of the stone, which is not sculptured, is left rough. In thickness, it 
varies from ten to twelve inches. It bears three inscriptions, and is 
bilinguar — two of them being in the Egyptian language, though in 
separate and distinct characters, the third is in Ancient Greek. The 
first or uppermost inscription is in hieroglyphics, and much muti- 
lated — several lines being impaired or wanting — the second is the 
character, styled in the Greek translation enchorial, " writing of the 
people," or otherwise it is termed demotic, to designate its ordinary 
and popular use — the third is in Greek, and purports to be a transla- 
tion of the hieroglyphic and of the demotic texts. 

The English translations of the Rosetta stone, contained in the 
works enumerated in my first chapter, not being at present accessible 
to me, I render into English the French of Champollion Figeac. It 
is curtailed, in some measure, from the original Greek inscription ; 
wherein there is a long exordium in honor of Ptolemy Epiphanes, to 
be seen in " Amcilhon's Eclaircissements," published by the French 
Institute in 1803. The general reader will find much interesting in- 
formation on this and other subjects, in " Sharpe's Inscriptions" 
" British Museum ;" as likewise in the varied hierological and clas- 
sical works of this distinguished gentleman. The event recorded in 
the Rosetta Stone, the coronation of Epiphanes, took place at Mem- 
phis, in the month of March, 196 years B. C., or 2039 years ago. 



TRANSLATION. 



" The year IX, (of the reign of the "Son of the Sun, Ptolemy, ever living, 
beloved of Pthah") the tenth of the month of Mechir, the pontiffs and the 
prophets, those who enter into ihe sanctuary to clothe the gods, the ptero- 
phores, the hierogrammates, and all die other priests, who from all the tem- 
ples situated in the country, have come to Memphis, near the King, for the 
solemnity of the taking possession of that crown, which Ptolemy, ever living, 
the well beloved of Pthah, god Epiphanes most gracious prince, has inher- 
ited from his father, being assembled in the temple of Memphis, have pro- 
nounced, this same day, the following decree : 

" Considering, that the King Ptolemy, ever living, the well beloved of 
Pthah, god Epiphanes, most gracious, son of the King Ptolemy, and of the 
Queen Arsinoe, godsphilopatores (father-loving) has done all kinds of good, 
both to the temples, and to those who therein make their habitation; and, 
in general, to all those who are under his dominion ; that being (himself) a 
god, born of a god and a goddess, like Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, 
the avenger of Osiris his father; and ambitious of signalizing generously his 
zeal for the things which concern the gods, he has consecrated to the service 
of the temples, great revenues, as well of money as of wheat, and has been 
at great expenses to restore tranquillity in Egypt, and to raise temples. 

" That he has not neglected any of the means that were within his power, 
to perform acts of humanity; that in order that in his kingdom the people, 
and in general all the citizens, should be in prosperity, he has suppressed 
altogether some of the taxes and imposts established in Egypt, and has 
diminished the onus of the others ; that, moreover, he has remitted all that 
was due to him on the royal rents, as much by his subjects, inhabitants of 
Egypt, as by those of his other kingdoms; although these rents were very 
considerable in their amount; that he has liberated by amnesty, those who 
were imprisoned, and under sentence from a long time ; 

"That he has ordained, that the revenues of the temples, and the rents 
payable to them every year, as much in wheat as in money, as also those 
perquisitions reserved to the gods on the vineyards, the orchards, and on the 
other things, to which they were entitled from the time of his father, should 
continue to be collected in the country. 

" That he has dispensed those, who belong to the sacerdotal orders, from 
making every year a voyage by water to Alexandria. 

" That he has ordered, that the citizens who had laid down their rebellious 
arms, and those whose sentiments had been, in the times of trouble, opposed 
to the government, and who had returned to their duly, should be maintained 
in possession of their property. 

" That having entered Memphis, as the avenger of his father, and of his 
own rightful crown, he has punished, as they deserved, the chiefs of those 
who had revolted against his father, and devastated the country, and de- 
spoiled the temples. 

'' That he has made many gifts to Apis, to Mnevis, and to the other sacred 
animals of Egypt. 

" That he has caused tobe made magnificent works to the temple of Apis, 
and has furnished, for these labors, a large quantity of gold, and silver, and 
precious stones ; that he has raised temples, and chapels, and altars ; and 
that be has made the necessary repairs to those which required them, hav- 
ing the zeal of a beneficent god for all that concerns the divinity ; that, 
having informed himself of the state in which were found the most precious 
things inclosed in the temples, he has renewed thern in his empire, as much 
as it was necessary — in recompense for which, the gods have given him 
health, victory, and other goods ; . . . .the crown having to remain to him, 
as well as to his children, down to the most remote posterity. 

"It has therefore pleased the oriests of all the temples of the land to de- 
cree, that all the honors belonging to the King Ptolemy, ever living, the well- 
beloved of Pthah, god Epiphanes, most gracious, as well as thosewhich are 
due to his father and mother, the gods philopatores ; and those which are 
due to his ancestors, should be considerably augmented ; that the statue of 
King Ptolemy, ever living, he erected in each temple, and placed in the most 
conspicuous spot, which shall be called the Statue of Ptolemy, avenger of 
Egypt; near this statue shall be placed the principal god of the temple, who 
will present him with the arms of victory ; and everything shall be disposed 
in the manner most appropriate. That the priests shall perform, three times 
a day,'religious service to these statues; that they shall adorn them with »a- 
cred ornaments; and that they shall have care to render them, in the great 
solemnities, all the honors which, according to usage, ought to be paid to the 
other deities ; that there be consecrated to King Ptolemy a statue, and a 
chapel, gilded, in the most holy of the temples; that this chapel be placed in 
the sanctuary, with all the others ; and that, in die great solemnities, wherein 
it is customary to bring out the chapels from the sanctuaries, there shall be 
brought out that of the god Epiphanes, most gracious ; and that this chapel 
may be better distinguished from the others, now and in the lapse of time 
hereafter, there shall he placed above it the ten golden crowns of the king, 
which shall bear on their anterior part an asp, in imitation of tjiose crowns 
of aspic form, which are in the other chapels; and in the middle of these 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



crowns, shall be placed the royal ornament termed pshent, that one which 
the king wore when he entered the Memphis, in the temple, in order to ob- 
serve the legal ceremonies prescribed for the coronation ; that there be at- 
tached to the tetragon (the cornice? or perhaps cover?) encircling the ten 
crowns affixed to the chapel above named, phylacleres of gold (similar to the 
Hebrew " taphilim" — amulets) with this inscription : " This is the chapel 
of the King; of that king'who has rendered illustrious the upper and the lower 
region ;" that there be celebrated a festival : arid a great assembly (pane- 
gyrie) be held in honor of the ever living, of the well beloved of Pthah, of the 
King Ptolemy, god Epiphancs most gracious, every year; this festival shall 
take place in all the provinces, as well in Upper, as in Lower Egypt ; and 
shall last for five days, to commence on the first day of the month of Tholh ; 
during which, those who make the sacrifices, the libations, and all the other 
customary ceremonies, shall wear crowns; ihey shall be called the priests 
of the god Epiphanes — Eucliaristos (most gracious) and they shall add this 
name to the others, that they borrow from the deities to the service of whom 
they are already consecrated. 

"And in order that it may be known why, in Egypt, he is glorified and 
honored, as is just, the god Epiphanes, most gracious sovereign, the present 
decree shall be engraved on a stela of hard stone, in sacred characters, (i. e. 
in hieroglyphics) in writing or the country (i. e. in enchorial, or demo- 
tic) and in Greek letters : and this stela shall be placed in ^ach of the 
temples of the first, second, and third class existing in all the kingdom." 

Note — The Rosetta stone is the only one of these numerous tablets, that 
hasyet been found ; but it is by no means impossible, that another copy be 
discovered among the excavations that will be made in the temples of Egypt. 



The importance of this stone and its inscriptions, indicating the 
probability of its supplying a Key to the deciphering of the long 
lost meanings of Egyptian hieroglyphics, was immediately per- 
ceived. The French general, Dugua, brought from Egypt to Paris, 
a cast and two impressions of the stone, made at Cairo ; and in 
1803, an analysis of the Greek inscription, made by citizen Ameil- 
hon, was published by order of the Institute. Copies of the stone 
were subsequently given in the " Description de 1' Egypte." The 
Royal Antiquarian Society of London, on receipt of the original, 
caused copies to be engraved, and disseminated throughout Europe. 

The Rosetta Stone excited the liveliest interest in all those who 
had devoted themselves to Egyptian Archaeology ; and the attention 
of the greatest scholars of the age was directed to its critical invest- 
igation. 

The Greek inscription engaged the scrutiny of Professor Porson, 
in London ; and of Dr. Heyne,in Germany. By their critical labors, 
and those of the French Institute, the blanks occasioned by frac- 
tures in the stone were supplied, and the purport of the whole was 
completely and satisfactorily ascertained. 

With equal zeal, and in the end, with astonishing success, the 
Continental scholars were examining the meaning of the other two 
inscriptions. They demonstrated that the Greek was really a trans- 
lation ; and consequently, that the opinion of the ancients, no less 
than that of the moderns, was erroneous, in supposing that the hie- 
roglyphic and other Egyptian characters had ceased to be em- 
ployed, and their interpretation lost, since the Persian conquest of 
that country by Cambyses, in 525 B.C. ; while Quatremere, by 
other processes, had established the present Coptic language to be 
the ancient Egyptian itself. The attention, however, of these 
learned inquirers, seems to have been mainly directed to the study 
of the second, or intermedial inscription — roi? tc upon, nai cy^oipton, 
<ro( tWniiiKois ypannaotv — called in the Greek text, " enchorial, or, 
writing of the people ;" also, as above stated, termed demotic ; for 
the simple reason, that while it was the best preserved, at first sight 
it appeared to be the easiest to decipher. Time, however, has shown 
it to be the most difficult. 

The greatest Orientalist of the day, and most proficient European 
Arabic scholar, the lamented Silvestre de Sacy, was, in 1802, the 
first to discover in the demotic text, the groups which represent dif- 
ferent proper names; such as Ptolemy, Arsinoe, Alexander, and Alex- 
andria — as well as to indicate that the signs in these groups are 
letters. 

A Swedish gentleman resident at Rome, Akerblad, extended the 
researches of De Sacy. He gave a skeleton alphabet of the de- 
motic text ; but, inasmuch as he omitted to observe the suppression 
of the vowels, (as customary in Hebrew, Arabic, and other oriental 
languages,) he failed in applying this alphabet to the greater portion 
of the demotic inscription. Yet a great progress had been made ; 
and to Akerblad belongs the merit of indicating a passage in the 
hieroglyphic character, which subsequent discoveries have con- 
firmed. The Key to Egyptian monumental legends seemed, how- 
ever, to be as fugacious as ever ; and years were spent in the dis- 
covery of a single additional letter, notwithstanding the intensity of 
the interest, and the laborious zealousness of the students. 

Under the title of " Analysis of the hieroglyphic Inscription of 
the Rosetta Stone ;" there appeared at Dresden, in 1804, a pretended 
translation of the mutilated hieroglyphics, wherein the author, re- 
peating the mystifications of Kircher, recognized in the fourteen 
lines still existing of the hieroglyphical characters, (being scarcely 
the half of the primitive inscription, before the stone was broken,) 
the entire and perfect expression of its purport, contained in the 
fifty-four lines of the Greek Text ! To outherod Herod in pre- 
sumption, the Dresden author reprinted his work at Florence, after 
Champollion's discoveries, as a sort of formal protest against the 
new direction given to Egyptian studies ! 

An interval occurred, after Akerblad's discoveries, before any 



ostensible advancement was made in the deciphering of these in- 
scriptions, when the celebrated Dr. Thomas Young, famed for the 
universality of his acquirements, published in 1814, in the " Archaao- 
logia " an improvement on the alphabet of Akerblad. He added a 
translation of the demotic inscription, placed by the side of the 
Greek, but distinguishing the contents of the different lines, with as 
much precision as he could then acheive. In May, 1614, Dr. Young 
^published in the sixth No. of the "Museum Criticum," the result of 
his labors on the enchorial text. In 1818, he communicated to 
the learned of Europe, a Memoir specifying his discoveries in hie- 
roglyphics, republished in the year 1819, in the Encyclopedia Bri- 
tannica — of which anon. Dr. Young's interesting labors on the 
demotic text, &.c, may be consulted in Dr. H. Tattam's Coptic 
Grammar. 

In 1816, the learned German, Tychsen, of Gottingen, following a 
different method of reasoning, was enabled to prove that the hie. 
ratic character (not included in the Rosetta Stone) was but a simple 
tachygraphy, or abridged mode of writing, a short-hand in fact, of tne 
hieroglyphical inscriptions. An opinion entertained likewise by Dr. 
Young. It would appear that, in 1812, Champollion held the same 
belief ; although, at that time, he drew from the fact conclusions dia- 
metrically at variance with those sustained in his Memoir, read, in 
1821, to the Royal Academy of Belles Lettres at Paris. 

Amid all the above interesting researches, the secret of the inter- 
pretation of hieroglyphics, though nearly reached, or vaguely guessed 
at, from the times of Warburton, Zoega, and Prof. Vater, seemed to 
elude the grasp of the most comprehensive minds, and the pursuit of 
the most untiring examiners. Many had stated their conviction, that 
hieroglyphics constituted a real written language, applicable to all 
the pursuits of common, as well as of public and scientific life ; sus- 
ceptible of translation, and capable of being analyzed into an alpha- 
bet, consisting of little more than 30 letters. The number of signs 
used by the Copts in expressing their language, consists of the Greek 
alphabet of 24 signs, with the addition of 7 characters taken from 
the demotic Egyptian alphabet, to express articulations, or sounds, 
for which the Greek alphabet is insufficient. But, of the many 
inquirers, none had at this time successfully demonstrated the fact. 

While these labors were prosecuted in Europe, there were two 
English gentlemen in Egypt, whose studies of the monuments them- 
selves had led them to the threshold of truth; and it is due to Messrs. 
.1. W. Bankes and Consul-general Salt to record, that, in 1818, they 
had identified the name of " Cleopatra" in a hieroglyphical oval on 
the obelisk of Philae (subsequently removed to England for Mr. 
Bankes, by Belzoni,) to which conclusion they were led by a Greek 
inscription, on the same obelisk, confirmed by a variety of curious 
coincidences. About the same time, 1820, some very extraordinary 
comparisons were afforded, by the discovery of some Greek papyri — 
one of which is justly renowned as the property of George F. Grey, 
Esq. ; another, containing the " Sixth Book of Homer," was found 
in Nubia by that most enterprising of Egyptian travellers, Monsieur 
A. Linant, now chief civil engineer in the service of Mohammed 
Ali. It is to be regretted, that the lamented Henry Salt should have 
delayed announcing to the world his own further discoveries in time ; 
because, while there seems every likelihood that he had identified the 
names of various other kings on the monuments of Egypt, before he 
was aware of Champollion's discoveries ; yet, it must be allowed, that 
priority of publication is, by two or three years, in favor of the latter ; 
no less than that, to the latter exclusively belongs the merit of putting 
forth his system at once, and complete beyond all previous anticipa- 
tion, applicable to every epoch, and to every legend in Egyptian 
history. 

The supplement to the 4th and 5th editions of the Encyclopedia 
Britannica — Edinburgh, 1819 — under the article " Egypt," cast the 
first beam of true light on the method adopted by the Egyptians, in 
their peculiar art of writing ; and the renown of Dr. Youxo spread 
far and wide as the ingenious author of this interesting essay. To 
him belongs the merit of positively indicating in the hieroglyphical 
groups on the Rosetta Stone, the names of " Ptolemy-' and " Bere- 
nice;'" and the probable values of each of the letters, contained in 
these two royal ovals ; although subsequent investigalions reduced 
the number of Dr. Young's positive demonstrations, to the phonetic 
value of five distinct characters, corresponding to our I, N, P, T, and 
F. Dr. Young's elaborate article explained the ingenious and curi. 
ous mechanical process, by which he had arrived at nis conclusions. 
He likewise pointed out the probable meaning of some two hundred 
groups of hieroglyphic characters; many of which interpretations 
have been confirmed by later experience. He demonstrated, that 
the two unknown inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone (the hieroglyphic 
and demotic) were, as to the mode of expressing ideas, identical; 
the one being, in good measure, a corruption, abridgment, or running 
form of the other. He moreover ascertained the mode of numeration, 
used by the Egyptians in hieroglyphic writings. 

He was led, however, into many errors, by his supposition of the 
existence of a syllabic and a dissyllabic principle in the composition 
of phonetic hieroglyphics; whereas Champollion demonstrated, that 
each phonetic hieroglyphic was a simple consonant, a vowel, or a 
diphthong. 

Dr. Young, however, was unable to carry the application of his 
principles of interpretation much beyond the names of, a " J 1 lolcmy, y 



ANCIENT EGYPT, 



a 'Berenice," and a " Cleopatra." He had found the key, but in 
his hands, it failed to open the door ; and after allowing some three 
years to elapse, he deliberately stated his conviction (in his " Ac- 
count of some recent discoveries in hieroglyphic literature and 
Egyptian antiquities," London, 1823 ;) " that the ancient Egyptians 
did not make use of an alphabet to represent the sounds and articu- 
lations of certain words, before the domination of the Greeks and the 
Romans." In short, it must in fairness be allowed, that between 
Champollion and Dr. Young there is little parity in achievements ; 
as the system of the latter could, beyond its first origin, apply itself 
to nothing ; while the system of the former applies itself to every- 
thing- Egyptian. Sir Wm. Gell and Mr. Wilkinson, in 1821, had 
already turned their attention to these subjects. 

1 am aware of the extreme jealousy with which the claim of priority 
in hieroglyphical interpretation, between Dr. Young and Champol- 
lion le Jeune has been debated ; and that a national rivalry has been 
excited, between England and France on this subject, which, if in 
many of its incidents is by the impartial to be deplored, yet has led 
to an emulation, that has wonderfully promoted the advancement of 
science. I confess, that my own tendencies are in favor of the Con- 
tinental side of the question, and that I recognize in Champollion the 
master spirit. Without wishing to detract an iota from Dr. Young's 
right to the honor of discovering the Key, I believe, that without a 
Champollion, but little progress would at this day have been made in 
Egyptian archaeology. My readers would probably not be interested 
in the details of the controversy, and those who feel curious on the 
question, may readily verify the view I take by consulting the authors 
themselves. It is for the same reason, and the fear of being tedious, 
that I purposely abstain from giving illustrations on the hieroglyph- 
ical points in dispute ; because my object is to give the results of 
these discoveries, as achieved in 1842, rather than the doubts and 
errors of 1820. It will be seen, in the course of the present essays 
(and future lectures) that I omit nothing, that to the g ( neral reader 
can elucidate the theme. My part, as an annalist, is smply to give 
this succinct sketch, in chronological order, by way of preface to the 
developments at the present hour absolutely accomplished, and 
incontrovertibly established. 

It appears probable that, in 1812, and perhaps for 8 years after, 
Champollion le Jeune did not believe, that the hieratic writing of- 
the ancient Egyptians was alphabetic — that he considered the hie. 
ratic of the Greek authors to be a "hieroglyphic tachygraphy," and 
consequently to be in construction identical with the hieroglyphic ; 
and as he deemed the hieratic to be signs of things, and not of 
sounds, it follows, that he did not recognize, in 1812, that alphabetic 
principle in the hieroglyphic legends, the existence of which, in 1822, 
he thoroughly demonstrated. 

The 27th Sept., 1822, was a memorable day to antiquarian laborers, 
and inquirers into the primeval history of man ; while, to the Egyp- 
tian student, it is an era equal to any in history. On that day, the 
illustrious Champollion le Jeune read to the Royal Academy of Belles 
Lettres at Paris, his " Memoir on phonetic hieroglyphics" — which, 
in October, was published under the title of " Letters to Monsieur 
Dacier, perpetual Secretary of the Academy" — wherein, for the first 
time since the cessation of hieroglyphic writing (about the 3rd cen- 
tury after Christ) it was demonstrated, that " the ancient Egyptians 
had made use of pure hieroglyphical signs, that is to say, of charac- 
ters representing the image of material objects, to represent simply 
the sounds of the names of Greek and Roman sovereigns, inscribed 
on the monuments of Dendera, Thebes, Esne, Edfoo, Ombos, and 
Philae." The great paleographer thoroughly established his propo- 
sition, in the application of his phonetic system and alphabetical 
hieroglyphics to the epochs of the Romans and the Ptolemies. He 
refrained from expressing, at the time, what must naturally have been 
his own hope, if not conviction, that the same application would be 
found consistent with and analogous to hieroglyphic inscriptions of an 
earlier period : but time was required for the collection of further 
materials, before openly hazarding an opinion, in support of which it 
was, at that moment, out of his power to adduce sufficient evidence. 

The Savans of Europe were astounded at the success and method 
of Champollion. Every one was struck with its truth : but envy was 
more prominent in the mass, than a desire to cooperate with the illus- 
trious Frenchman. There were many learned minds, feeling the 
force of the discovery, who exclaimed, as when Columbus made the 
egg stand on its end, that, " nothing was easier," although they had 
none of them discovered it before ; and time has shown, that the ex- 
treme facility with which hieroglyphics were now to be deciphered, 
was, for some years, limited to the presiding genius — to Champollion 
himself. Detraction was the weapon wielded with most facility 
by the critic; and, from 1822 to the present hour, it is infinitely more 
facile to declare that, "hieroglyphical interpretation is all nonsense," 
than to acquire, by study and patient research, a knowledge of the 
subject, upon which it has been so fashionable to sneer and to cavil. 

In his " Egypt under the Pharaohs," Champollion, in 1814, had 
recorded his hope, " that there would be at last rediscovered, upon 
those tablets, whereon Egypt had painted but material objects, the 
sounds of language, and the expressions of thought." In 1822, he 
fully realized that hope : and if it may be maintained, that the first 
rays of true light burst on him after Dr. Young's discoveries, it must, 
on the other hand, be allowed, that the use he made of its then par- 



tial flickering has immortalized his glorious labors, infinitely beyond 
those, not only of his contemporaries, but of all his predecessors. 
Like Archimedes, Galileo, Franklin, Sir Isaac Newton, Watt, Har- 
vey, Fulton, and other meteors in the paths of science, he marked 
his era to the honor of himself, to the glory of his country, and to the 
general benefit of mankind. As he himself declares, " my hiero- 
glyphical alphabet was in truth grounded upon so many facts, and 
positive applications, that I had to fear, less the controvertors, than 
pretenders to a participation in my discovery." 

In February, 1823, there appeared in the London Quarterly Review, 
a journal aptly designated by Champollion as " eminently English," 
an article, wherein, although the truths of the results published by 
Champollion in his "Letters to Monsieur Dacier," are acknowledged, 
the writer claimed for Dr. Young the priority of the discovery. This 
was followed by a small volume from the pen of Dr. Young himself; 
entitled "An Account of some Recent Discoveries in Hieroglyphical 
Literature, and Egyptian Antiquities, including the Author's original 
Alphabet, as extended by Monsieur Champollion. London, 1823." 

Impartiality cannot close its eyes to the evident tendency of the 
article in the London Quarterly, written in a spirit calculated to 
arouse the national jealousy of French scientific men, and still more 
the easily excitable anger of Champollion, one of the most jealous 
savans in the world. Dr. Young's book was an ill-advised and fee- 
ble production ; and instead of raising its author above the elevated 
position his article in the Encyclopedia Britanica had secured for 
him in 1819, its effect was injurious to his just claims of priority, as 
well as suicidal to his less deserved hieroglyphical pretensions. The 
whole affair was unfortunate, as it proved, that although Dr. Young 
had found the key he could not make use of it ; and the tone of 
captiousness it exhibits was extremely prejudicial to his literary fame, 
long established on the secure basis of his vast erudition and univer- 
sality of genius. 

The ire of Champollion was fully aroused. He bent his mighty 
energies to the task ; and in the autumn and winter of 1823 he 
composed, and in 1824 he put forth his " Precis du systeme hiero- 
glyphique des Anciens Egyptiens :" wherein, with the hands of a 
giant, he stripped Dr. Young even of the measure of merit he would 
have enjoyed unmolested, but for the Quarterly Review and his own 
"Account" above mentioned; and at the same time, with singular 
felicity of analysis, reduced Dr. Young's claim of priority to indi- 
cating the phonetic value of 5 letters, instead of nine, which Dr. 
Young had appropriated to himself exclusively. 

With the force of an earthquake the illustrious Frenchman over- 
threw the puny edifices of his predecessors ; and, from that hour, the 
Annals of Egypt, her time-honored chronicles, her papyri crumbling 
in the dust of ages, ceased to be mysteries! The "Veil of Isis " — 
" the curtain that no mortal hand could raise " — which, for 2000 
years, had baffled the attempts of Greeks and Romans, with the still 
more vigorous efforts of modern Egyptologists — was lifted by Cham- 
pollion le Jeune : and the glories of Pharaonic epochs — the deeds 
of the noblest, the most learned, pious, warlike, and civilized race of 
ancient days — whose monarchy has exceeded by 1000 years the 
duration of any of our modern nations — whose works surpass in 
magnitude, in boldness of conception, accuracy of execution, and 
splendor of achievement the mightiest labors of any other people — 
and whose lordly dominion over the nations of the earth at one period 
perhaps equalled the territorial extent of Muscovy, at the present day; 
have, through Champollion's labors, and through those of his col. 
leagues and disciples, become familiar to all whose inclination has 
prompted them to read the works which, since 1824, have issued 
from the press of Europe. 

The immediate results of Champollion's labors in 1824, served to 
establish the fact, that the greater portion of those signs or repre- 
sentations of material objects, sculptured, painted, or delineated in 
all hieroglyphical texts and legends, were phonetic ; and thoroughly 
reducible, as in due time by him effected, into an alphabet composed 
of 16 distinct articulations, for each of which there was a number 
more or less great of homophones — i. e symbols, differing in figure, 
though identical in sound — applicable according to a well-defined 
system, and never solely by graphical caprice. He proved, that the 
hieroglyphic mode of writing is a complex system — a system figura. 
five, symbolical, and phonetic (I will explain these terms in due 
course,) always in the same text, sometimes in the same phrase, and 
often in the same word. He proved the idea to be illusory, (although 
so frequently put forth by his predecessors, and reiterated by some 
of his contemporaries,) that no alphabet was in use in Egypt; or that 
hieroglyphical phonetic writing had been introduced into that coun- 
try after the Persian invasion in B. C. 525. He overthrew the doc- 
trine, that phonetic signs were first employed in Egypt, after Psam- 
metichus, B. C. 650, who first allowed the " Impure Foreigners," 
the Greeks and others (to Egyptians, Gentile and barbarian nations) 
to sojourn in and to become citizens of Egypt ; for, in his " Precis " 
he demonstrated, that it was in unquestionable, constant, general, 
and popular use at the period of the 18th Diospolitan dynasty, or 
back to the 19th century B. C. His subsequent researches, and the 
labors of his disciples, have established, that it was equally so 2300 
years B. C. — that ages prior to this last epoch, at the time of the 
erection of the Pyramids, this mode of writing was just as perfect as 
at any period after; while the commencement of the art, or even the 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



incipient development of hieroglyphic writing, including the employ- 
ment of the phonetic system, lies buried in those countless days 
before the Pyramids, enveloped in utter obscurity, amid the primeval 
origin of nations, and infinitely beyond our present attainment, if not 
our comprehension. 

A pause followed Champollion's Precis. The force of his conclu- 
sions laid bare consequences too astounding to be thoroughly esti- 
mated, even by the most learned and the most enthusiastic Egyptian 
students. Like the atmospheric stillness that follows the thunder- 
clap, genius seemed paralyzed by the portentous aspect of the truth. 
On the one hand, the classical scholars, adhering rigidly to the He- 
brew, Greek, and Latin authorities, were not willing to cast aside 
the errors of their masters ; and those, whose schools had nailed 
their colors to the mast, were not prepared to see Manetho exalted 
above Herodotus and Diodorus ; to find Hermapion confirmed, while 
Pliny was rejected ; to behold in Plato but the translator, or in Pytha- 
goras but the adopter, of Egyptian mythological doctrines ; still less 
to consider what amount of instruction accrued to the Hebrew Law- 
giver from his education in Heliopolitan colleges ; for " Moses was 
learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." — Acts vii. 22. 

On the other hand, the astronomers and mathematicians, the 
Dupuis, the Bodes and Rhodes, the Goerres and Creuzers, the Four- 
riers and Biots, who had claimed for the zodiacal planispheres of 
Dendera and Esne, an antiquity varying from 700 to 17,000 years 
B. C, were not particularly charmed with a science which demon- 
strated, by hieroglyphical interpretation, what the learned Visconti 
had sustained 20 years before, amid the sneers of his cotemporaries, 
that these astrological subjects were the most modern productions 
of Egypto-Roman art, and Egypto-Hellenic science, of the age of 
Tiberius, Nero, Claudius, Hadrian, or Antoninus. 

Christian divines, apprehending the progress of infidelity, if no 
records of the Hebrews were to be found in Egypt, no memento of 
the Patriarchs, or of the Exodus, in hieroglyphical legends, looked 
with discountenance on the new science, and clung to the good old 
unintelligibilities of profane writers ; while other well-meaning per- 
sons snatched with avidity at supposititious confirmations, in points 
wherein there is no confirmation to be found. It was extremely 
provoking to some finished Hebrew, Greek, or Latin classic to find, 
that these perverse old Egyptians, besides resorting to such " a queer 
mode of writing," should have actually used Coptic for their language, 
whereby a hieroglyphic text required a double study, before it could 
be rendered into any of our modern tongues. How much more 
convenient would it not have been, if the living antecedent of the 
mummy had talked in Latin, or in Greek, or at least in Hebrew ; 
and if this self-willed individual would use Coptic for his ordinary 
language, why were not the dialects spoken at the rise of the 16th 
Theban dynasty, about 22 centuries B. C, the same as were spoken 
in Egypt about 500 years after our Saviour, when the liturgies which 
we now possess in the Coptic tongue began to be composed ? In 
short, it must be acknowledged, Champollion's discoveries were to 
the mass of the learned, in all countries, unpopular and unpleasing ; 
and a cold and suspicious reception was the first welcome with which 
the " Precis " was received by the many, although the work met with 
applause, and the author found instant solace in the admiration of 
the few. 

After the pause, came in natural process a reaction. On every 
side, doubts, difficulties, dilemmas, and obstacles were, with won. 
derful ingenuity, and not a little malignity, suggested. Efforts of all 
kinds were made to stem the torrent of conviction, or to direct it into 
an unpropitious channel. It may be remarked, that none were slower 
in admitting the value of Champollion's discoveries, than some of the 
then surviving members of the French " Institute of Egypt," whose 
profound erudition is displayed in the great French work : and to 
this day, there is a set cf really great men in Europe, who continue 
to write largely on ancient Egypt, without alluding at all to what the 
old Egyptians record of their own history, and as if a single hiero- 
glyphic had not been deciphered ! Some, with the ostrich, bury their 
heads in the sand, and with a curious self-complacency fancy all 
mankind as blind as themselves. Others, reposing on the well-earned 
laurels of former deeds, or on the sanction of eminent names, are 
happy in knowing that they, at least, had no hand in advancing the 
new discoveries; while, by the disciples of Champollion, the works 
of these gentlemen, as they issue from the press, are laid on the shelf, 
as " emanations from a superannuated school of feminine senility." 
But, of course, the severest shafts were those of facetiousness and 
satire — ridicule being the deadliest of weapons — the most difficult to 
parry — the most agreeable to the public. However, Champollion, 
and the fellow-laborers whom his discoveries soon rallied around his 
hieroglyphic standard, kept steadily at work. 

Sowarroff, when the siege of Ismail had baffled Russia's ablest 
generals, used, in his shirt, to head the awkward squads of his troops, 
in a bayonet-charge against sticks, picketted in the earth and sur- 
mounted with rag-turbans, to accustom his raw recruits to face the 
" turbanned Turk," greatly to the amusement and derision of his 
staff. Like Sowarroff in his military exercises, sj Champollion in 
kis hieroglyphical researches, pursued a system 

" At which they sneered in phrases wondrous witty. 
He made no answer; hut. he took the city." 

The succeeding three years were, by Champollion, employed in 



studying and deciphering all those monuments and Egyptian relics, 
contained in Continental museums, of which he could consult the 
originals, or obtain facsimile copies. In two invaluable " Letters," 
addressed to the Duke of Blacas (Due de Blacas,) he published a 
multitude of curious facts and discoveries, gleaned chiefly from the 
study of the antiquities preserved in the royal collections at Turin. 
To these letters, his learned brother, Champollion Figeac, added, by 
way of appendix, a chronological dissertation, having for its main 
object to reconcile Manetho with the discrepancies of other authors. 
A second and improved edition of the "Precis" was issued by Cham- 
pollion, on his return to France from Turin, wherein he corrected 
many of his former hasty conclusions, and modified some of his 
prior opinions. He likewise put forth, in this interval, an " Egyptian 
Pantheon," by which much light was thrown on the mythology, phi- 
losophy, and religious doctrines and rites of this ancient people. He 
corresponded on these subjects with some of the most eminent ar- 
chaeologists of the age, and paved the way for the realization of his 
dearest wish, a visit to Egypt, and the personal study of all the monu- 
ments existing in the Nilotic Valley. 

In 1825, Charles Coquerel, a Protestant clergyman at Amsterdam, 
compared the chronologies of Scripture with the new discoveries, 
and pointed out the advantages which the one derived from the other. 
The erudite and liberal Dr. Wiseman of Rome, in his " Horse Syri- 
acse," 1828, followed in the same field ; adding a curious Syriac frag- 
ment, found in the Vatican, confirmatory of the views of Champollion 
Figeac. The Marquis Spineto, in 1829, in a course of lectures, 
published after their delivery at Cambridge, in a very able manner 
unfolded the " elements of hieroglyphics." The Abbe Grcppo and 
the Rev. M. Bovet, in the same year, lent their aid in establishing 
scriptural and monumental comparisons. On the opposite side, Abbe" 
Count Robiano instituted an ingenious analysis of hieroglyphic and 
demotic texts. He endeavored to establish forced Hebrew affinities; 
but his work is valuable, as it goes to show the Semitic origin of 
Coptic, and thence we may infer the Asiatic origin of that language, 
which we shall find singularly confirmed by the paleographic re- 
searches of another hierological master, Dr. Leipsius of Berlin, in his 
correspondence with Chevalier Baron Bunsen, as in his numerous 
later works. From this date, the increase of works all over Europe 
has been so rapid, on various branches of Egyptian science, that it 
would be tedious to give merely a dry catalogue ; nor do I pretend 
to have had an opportunity of consulting them all. 

While we have endeavored to keep pace with the progress of the 
master up to the year 1827, it is peculiarly gratifying to revert to the 
labors prosecuted in Egypt by some of his disciples. It is always 
pleasing to render justice to the operations of men of science and 
learning; and the names of Burton, Wilkinson, Felix, Prudhoe, and 
Hay, are too honorably associated with early Egyptian studies, in 
phonetic hieroglyphics, not to demand in this place especial mention. 

With Dr. Young's key, and Champollion's alphabet contained in 
his letter to M. Dacier, a group of scientific Englishmen commenced 
in Egypt itself, about 1822, the scrutiny and examination of all the 
Monuments of antiquity existing, from the Sea-beach to Upper Nubia, 
from the Oases to the peninsula of Mount Sinai, and in every direc- 
tion in the Eastern and Western Deserts. These gentlemen, named 
above, mutually aiding and cooperating ".vith each other, were enabled 
to take instant advantage of the true method of interpretation. Egypt 
was then all virgin ground. Every temple, every tomb, contained 
something unknown before ; and which these gentlemen were the 
first to date, and to describe with accurate details. A more intensely 
interesting field never opened to the explorer — every step being a 
discovery. Nobly did these learned and indefatigable travellers pio- 
neer the way, and mighty have been the results of their arduous labors. 
They procured lithographic presses from England ; and, at their indi- 
vidual expense, for private circulation, Messrs. Felix, Burton, and 
Wilkinson printed (at Cairo — 182G to 1829) and circulated a mass 
of hieroglyphical tablets, legends, genealogical tables, texts, mytho- 
logical, historical, and other subjects, which, under the modest titles 
of " Notes,"* " Excerpta,"t and " Materia Hieroglyphica,"t were 
disseminated to learned societies in Europe. Lord Prudhoe's distant 
excursions and correct memoranda rendered the collections of anti- 
quities, with which he enriched England, extremely valuable ; and 
his labors were the more appreciated, as his lordship's liberal mind 
and generous patronage of science were above any sordid motives 
of acquisitiveness. Mr. Hay's own accurate pencil, aided by various 
talented artists whom his princely fortune enabled him to employ, 
amassed an amount of drawings, that render his portfolios the largest 
in the world. The researches of all these gentlemen have been of 
incalculable value to the cause. They have preserved accurate data 
on subjects,^ that the destroying hand of Mohammed Ali has since 
irrevocably obliterated ; and as they all pursued science for itself, they 
deserve and enjoy a full measure of respect. The rumor of their 
successes reached Europe; and Champollion, with reason, appre- 
hended, that if he delayed his visit to Egypt any longer, the indivi- 
dual labors of English travellers would render that visit as unprofitable 

v By Major Felix : republished, in Italian, at Pi>a. 
t By James Halliburton, Esq. ; out of print. 
X By Sir J. G. Wilkinson; do. 

§ See my "Appeal to the Antiquaries of Europe, on the Destruction of the Monu- 
ments of Egypt." 1341. London, Madden & Co. New York, Sartlett tWelford. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



as unnecessary. National jealousy was excited ; and, to preserve 
her position as the patroness of Egyptian literature, France deter. 
mined not to be anticipated. 

In 1828, the French government sent a commission, consisting of 
Champollion le Jeunc, and four French artists, well supplied with 
every necessary outfit, to Egypt, in order that the master might, for 
his own and his country's honor, and at her expense, reap the harvest 
for which his hand had sown the seed. A similar design having 
suggested itself to another patron of arts and sciences, the Grand 
Duke of Tuscany, the celebrated archaeologist and oriental scholar, 
Professor Ippolito Rosellini, of the University of Pisa, and four Ital- 
ian artists under his direction, were appointed a commission to pro. 
ceed to Egypt, with the same intent as the French mission. It was 
amicably arranged by the respective governments, and between the 
chiefs of each expedition, that their labors should be united ; and, in 
consequence, the French and Tuscan missions were blended into 
one, and both reached Alexandria in the same vessel, and prosecuted 
their labors hand in hand from Memphis to the second Cataract. 
They returned in 1829. 

We are now approaching a period, when, for all local Egyptian 
annals, my own personal recollection will supply the place of books ; 
and I am able to speak as a spectator, and a little later as a very hum- 
ble actor, in some of the scenes, of which I shall incidentally give 
sketches. These may be thought curious by my readers, and I can 
assure them, that they are known to very few, and have never been 
published. I have said, that from 1829 my local recollection serves ; 
but, to avoid misapprehension, I will mention, that my sojourn in 
Egypt dates from 1818, and with intervals of absence has been pro- 
longed during 23 years, to 1841 ; and consequently, I presume to 
entertain opinions of my own, on any affairs to which I am a party. 
I mention these circumstances, with an apology for alluding to my- 
self, only to satisfy my readers, that I am not a stranger in the land 
of Egypt, and may be allowed to speak from personal knowledge and 
Jong experience, without reference to the works or opinions of gen- 
tlemen, who, however greatly they surpass me in acquirements and 
talents, remained but a few weeks, months, or years, in the valley of 
the Nile ; and whose Egyptian sojournings, in point of duration, can 
rarely be spoken of in the same breath with my own. In fact, I feel 
myself to be a foreigner in every other country ; and if, on ancient 
Egyptian matters, I am proud to consider myself the humblest fol- 
lower in the footsteps of the hieroglyphical masters, or if, on scientific 
subjects, I make no claim to anything beyond the merest superficial 
acquaintance, it is not presumption in me to declare, that, on modern 
and on local Egyptian topics, I need acknowledge few superiors in 
or out of that country. Those who have been at Cairo, in my time, 
among whom I have much pleasure in enumerating a host of Amer- 
ican travellers, will allow, that in this personal digression, I do not 
arrogate to myself more than their own experience will in fairness 
concede to me. 

The arrival in Egypt of the French and Tuscan expeditions, added 
new fuel to the flame of antiquarian jealousy, which, for thirty years, 
had characterized the archaeological devotees of England and France 
in that country : but, in this later strife, the actors, by their pure 
love of science and national spirit of emulation, were divested of 
those sordid motives which disgraced their predecessors, and perhaps 
some of their successors. Up to 1825, the competition between the 
representatives of Britain and France, Mr. Consul General Salt, and 
Monsieur le Consul General Drovetti, had not been, as to which of 
them should immortalize his labors by the most useful examinations 
in ancient Egyptian lore ; but, in the immense works and excava- 
tions each of these gentlemen undertook, sordid acquisitiveness was 
the moving principle. They did not squabble with each other, lest 
the one should verify before his antagonist, on a mouldering temple, 
some interesting point of history. One did not strive to surpass the 
other in expounding the mysterious hieroglyphical legends. They 
quarrelled over a granite Sphinx, not as to which Pharaoh it had be- 
longed, but as to what price its sale would bring in Europe. Anti- 
quities were valuable in their eyes, simply according to their estimate 
of what they would sell for, when transferred from the ruins to the 
competition of European virtuosi.* 

* Mohammed A! i, and his astute minister Boghos, fanned these jealousies, which were 
fo many pledges, that Salt and Drovetti, while absorbed in intrigues, schemes and maneu- 
vres to cicumvent each other in the abstraction of a saleable relic, would, in common 
with their subordinate officers, (who at the same time were fattening on cotton, beans, 
&c.,) naturally close their eyes to barefaced infractions of every commercial treaty be- 
tween Europe and the Sublime Forle, of every lav/ of the Ottoman Empire, and of the 
free-trade principles of the Koran itself. The Pisha promoted this rivalry, by giving 
extra facilities to each, thereby rendering Ihctndc in antiquities a consular monopoly 
of France, Great Britain, and Sweden ; well knowing, that by tilling the pockets of the 
representatives of the first two, and using the other, Signer D'Anastasy, as a sort of 
cloak to their proceedings, he should place them under such lasting obligations to him- 
self, that they would follow the wheels of his chariot, without daring to remonstrate 
against his ruinous commercial system. 

It was not until 1840, that the British government believed the often disregarded com- 
plaints of her merchants, snw through the mystifications of'the Pasha, and peremptorily 
stopped the proceedings of H. M. consuls-general, by a radical change of the " person- 
nel." Feeling that I have had a hand in some of these changes, it is to me a legitimate 
cause of triumph ; and when Hook back at the dirhculties overcome, I indulge in pleas- 
ing anticipations of the future. 

Salt however, it must in justice be added, was a gentleman and a scholar, possessed 
of many estimable qualities; and, if he sold the tablet that he had succeeded in with- 
holding from the corsair-c latches of Drovetti, he certainly did his best to embellish his 
invoices with antiquarian annotations. He died in 1S27, leaving a large fortune made 



The enthusiastic English travellers, above referred to, having 
labored with great success on the virgin soil of local studies in hie- 
roglyphics, felt persuaded, as they had not at that period published 
the entire results of their researches, that if they came into personal 
contact with the arch-Egyptologist himself, amid the ruins along the 
Nile, it would be said, on their return to Europe, and on the publica. 
tion of their own discoveries, that they had derived all their inform, 
ation from Champollion. They consequently took such steps, as 
precluded the possibility of a rencontre in Egypt. On the other side, 
Champollion looked upon them as interlopers and trespassers on 
that field, which, with more vehemence than propriety, he considered 
his own exclusive prerogative — the expounding of hieroglyphics on 
the ruins of Egypt. Many laughable incidents were the conse- 
quences of this mutual diffidence, and the following anecdote will 
give an idea of the whole. 

The works of Arabian authors, Abd-el-Latoef, Makrisi, Murtady, 
Jellal-ed-deen-El-Assyootee, and others, contain, among many re- 
markable passages, some details on the spoliations of Memphis and 
Heliopolis, effected by the Saracenic Caliphate, since the conquest 
of Egypt by Aamer-ebn-el-As (in Anno Domini, 638, Hejira, 16 ;) 
for the construction of the various edifices of Saracenic magnificence 
at Cairo. A vast number of curious relics, and fragments of Phara- 
onic periods have been discovered, and many more lie embedded in 
the buildings of this Mahommedan city, which time will bring to 
light. One of these English explorers especially devoted himself, 
for a long period, to the examination of all such places as he thought 
might contain ruins of earlier epochs ; and he discovered a slab of 
basalt, forming the lintel of a doorway, in an unfrequented and dilap. 
idated mosque, whereon was engraved a trilinguar, or rather a tri- 
grammatic inscription. 

Having consulted with his fellow travellers, application was made, 
through the British consul general, to Mohammed Ali at Alexan- 
dria, for permission to remove this block, with an offer to repair the 
mosque, as a compensation for the favor. In Egypt, whatever may 
be the case elsewhere, it is impossible to keep a secret from the fer- 
ret-like propensities of courtiers ; and whether instigated by Dro- 
vetti or not, the Pasha refused, on the ground of sacrilege, desecration, 
and other canting phrases: the Viceroy, (who has destroyed more 
ancient remains than any individual in the world, and whose sacri- 
legious hand spared not the edifices of Islam itself) being wonder- 
fully happy in this, as in all other cases, in seizing on dexterous 
excuses and shuffling expedients. Mohammed Ali declined, how- 
ever, giving it to the French mission, lest he should offend the Eng- 
lish after their prior application. 

Champollion, on the good faith of a friend, was, in an evil hour, 
taken by an English traveller to see the block, as it stood in the 
mosque at Cairo. He instantly perceived its possible value. Dro- 
vetti was sent for from Alexandria ; and a plot was laid by him with 
the skill of one of the most finished conspirators of modern times. 
In Egypt, Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mohammed Ali, can do what- 
ever he pleases ; and as he was quite unaware of his father's refusal, 
Drovetti applied to him, for permission to take the stone, which he 
granted ; but, to avoid giving offence to the natives, which might 
have been the case if Europeans had done the work, he said he 
would cause it to be executed for himself, and gave orders for its re- 
moval the next day. Timely information reached the English trav- 
ellers ; who, provoked beyond measure at the duplicity of the opposite 
parties, went in the night, removed the block, and carried it to the 
English consulate, where it was carefully deposited. The indigna- 
tion of the French party, when it was known that the stone had 
been abstracted, may be conceived; Ibrahim Pasha himself was not 
a little annoyed. A tremendous row ensued. Mohammed Ali went 
off to Cairo, followed by the British consul general. Ibrahim's 
influence was all-powerful ; and knowing that " his beard had been 
laughed at," he persuaded his father to insist on the restitution of 
the stone to the Egyptian government. 

In the mean time, the Englishmen having had abundance of leisure 
to take facsimile copies, impressions, and plaster-casts, of the stone ; 
and having thereby ascertained that, from its very mutilated condi- 
tion, the inscriptions were of trivial value, sent the block to the pa- 
lace, with an intimation that it was not worth keeping, and forwarded 
their copies instantly to Europe. The stone was transferred to the 
Frenchmen by the gift of the Pasha; and is now in the museum at 
Paris. I was an amused eye-witness of the rabid indignation of 
Drovetti, when the stone first arrived at the French consulate in 
Alexandria. There are some biting sentences in the last " Letters" 



by collections of antiquities ; lamented as an amiable kind-hearted man, even by those 
who had suffered most from his indifference to commercial interests. After his demise, 
Aesop's fable of the frogs, who once petitioned Jove for a king, was realized by the mer 
cantile community in Egypt. King Log, Mr. ******, not pleasing the marshy tribe 
was succeeded by king Crane, Col. ********, who continued extremely friendly to 
Mohammed Ali, although his speculations in antiquities were not remarkably profitable 
in results, or splendid in conception. The farce continued, however, till 1840; when, by 
the expenditure of treasure and torrents of human blood, the spell was broken : and 
twenty years of mystification about Mohammed Ali's philanthropic utilities, and civili 
zing tendencies, began to be doubled in Europe. Gradually the Pasha's system ol 
monopoly is filling before the remonstrances of British official characters ; who are nei- 
therto be frightened by Boghos, or fascinated by Mohammed Ali : neither to be turned 
aside by antiquities, or to be crammed with lands, cotton, beans, and other tokens of ras 
highuess's partiality 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



of Champollion from Egypt, to which this anecdote may serve as a 
running commentary. 

This fact, with others of similar nature, will serve to explain the 
mode in which " affairs are managed" at the Pasha's court; and also 
the early jealousies and bickerings among hieroglyphical savans. To 
those who may have read the works that during the last twelve years 
have issued from the European press in the new school of archaeol- 
ogy, this explanation will be found useful ; serving them as a clue, 
whereby to comprehend incongruities that must frequently strike the 
impartial reader, by indicating the relative positions of some of the 
authors in Egypt, no less than the causes, why one makes sometimes 
so little allusion to the labors of another, who is studying the same 
subjects, treating on the same topics, and often arriving, independ- 
ently more or less of any other, at the same results. The truth is, 
the pursuit is so intensely interesting, the merit of a discovery so 
honorable to each pioneer in hieroglyphical literature, that we cannot 
be altogether surprised at, though we may deplore, the sometimes 
puerile exclusiveness of the writer. A better feeling is now becom- 
ing universal and it would be easy to point out instances of honorable 
amendment. 

After this digression, let us return to the chronological narrative. » 

During the residence of the French and Tuscan expeditions in 
Egypt, Champollion transmitted occasional letters to Paris, to keep 
aiive the interest with which his movements were watched. These 
letters were afterwards collected into a volume, and published under 
the title of " Letters written from Egypt and Nubia, in 1828-29." 
They are productions worthy of so great a man, possessing intrinsic 
merit and utility ; but, as Champollion wrote them in haste, before a 
thorough examination had enabled him to form positive conclusions, 
there are frequent errors in the views he entertained at that time, 
which he himself, and others have since corrected. 

One of the most extraordinary faculties possessed by Champollion 
was a power of comprehending, at a glance, that which others could 
only arrive at, if at all, by long and arduous study. With a felicitous 
intuitiveness of conception he could define the meaning of an obscure 
legend, or irreconcileable tradition, which it took him months to ex- 
plain in writing, to the comprehension of others less gifted than himself. 
It was in consequence of this singular ability, that he often hazarded 
an opinion, which was either rejected by the learned, or considered 
problematical, until time enabled him to demonstrate its accuracy, 
and it became almost an axiom. In fact, this gifted Frenchman 
lived so much in advance of his age with regard to Egyptian subjects, 
that many startling propositions, put forth by him, and which death 
prevented his substantiating, although looked upon at first as chimeri- 
cal, have been confirmed by the subsequent researches of his dis- 
ciples ; and, even now, there are some points unexplained, that 
Champollion sustained fifteen years ago, which those who can judge 
believe will hereafter be amply confirmed. Like other men, he was 



not infallible, though considering die abstruse nature of his studies, 
he was less liable to err than his fellows : for example : 

On leaving France, in 1828, he saw, at Aix, a hieratic scroll, 
celebrated as the Sallier papyrus ; wherein he declared was con. 
tained an an ancient Egyptian epic poem, referring to the conquests 
of Ramses 3rd. — Sesostris — over the Sheto (a Scythian nation) — 
events of the sixteenth century, B. C. — and geographically located 
toward Bactriana or Cappadocia. Years transpired — Champollion 
passed away — the very existence of the papyrus was denied — its 
production challenged — and it was even insinuated that it might be 
a forgery ! The publication of a translation of this identical papyrus, 
by Salvolini, under the title of " Campagne de Rhamses," within 
the last six years, has silenced the cavillers. 

Again, he was the first to insist, that the faces of the Pharaohs of 
Egypt, sculptured on the temples, were likenesses of the persons 
represented ; thus carrying back the full use of portrait-sculpture and 
painting to 2000 B. C, and its origin into the night of time. After 
fifteen years of critical, and even hostile research, no doubt is now 
entertained of the truth of his assertion ; and, in my lecture room 
the fact will be elucidated by abundant illustrations, &c. 

It is likewise due to the memory of this illustrious man to men. 
tion, that, in his " Precis," he had identified and produced the name 
of Sheshonk, the Shishak of Scripture, (who, in 2nd Chron. xii. 1 — 
10 — 1st Kings, xiv. 25 — deposed Rehoboam,) in the following hiero- 
glyphical oval, drawn in a plate of the great French work, as found 
at Kamac. 




TiTiT TrTtT^^lfc 



Mai SH e SH oN 
Beloved of Amon, Sheshonk. 



j: 



AftVM 

Four years elapsed, before he could verify this fact on the temple 
itself, during which interval, the name of Sheshonk, and his captive 
nations, had been examined times out of number by other hiero- 
glyphists, and the names of all the prisoners had been copied by 
them, and published, without any one of them having noticed the 
extraordinary biblical corroboration thence to be deduced. 

On his passage toward Nubia, Champollion landed for an hour or 
two, about sunset, to snatch a hasty view of the vast halls of Kar- 
nac ; and he at once pointed out in the third line of the row of 
sixty.three prisoners (each typical of a nation, city, or tribe,) presented 
by the god Amunra to Sheshonk, the following figure : 




-REDUCTION- 



HV^ra 



JUDaH M E LeK Kah 

King of the Country of Judah 



flOTE. — The turreted oval inclosing the name, designates a "walled city." 
The face of ihe prisoner is not, as has been erroneously and hastily con- 
jectured, a portrait of Rehoboam, but is typical of an Asiatic, 

The eye of the master being able to seize, at a glance, that which his 
emulous disciples, or competitors, had not made out in four years, 
after the index was given to them ! 

Laden with the richest archaeological spoils that ever left Egypt, 
Champollion with his party returned to France in 1829, and Roscllini 
with his associates to Tuscany. They had labored all together ; and 
each monumental subject had been faithfully delineated in two copies 
— the one by the French, and the other by the Italian artists. Both 
had been collated with each other on the spot, and compared with 
the originals on the monuments, by the great masters ; and in per- 
fect harmony the expeditions had fulfilled their mission. 



It was amicably arranged, between Champollion and Roscllini, 
that they were to combine their labors in the works that were to be 
issued ; each, however, taking separate branches— Champollion un- 
dertaking the illustration of the " Historical Monuments," and the 
grammar of the hieroglyphic language of Egypt— to Roselhni was 
assigned the task of elucidating, by the " Civil Monuments," the 
manners and customs of this ancient people, and the formation of a 
hieroglyphical dictionary. Each set to work by 1830 ; but Cham- 
pollion, finding his end approaching, hastened the completion of his 
grammar. Intense application had prostrated the fragile frame, 
which enveloped one of the most gifted mental capacities ever 
vouchsafed to man. The French government gave him, in the 
Royal Academy, a professor's chair, created for him alone ; and his 
address to his pupils, at the first and only occasion accorded to him 



10 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



by Providence, is a masterpiece of eloquence, sublimity of thought, 
and classical diction. 

He finished his grammar on his death-bed, and summoning his 
friends around him, he delivered the autograph into their custody, 
with the injunction " to preserve it carefully, for, I hope, it will be 
my visiting card to posterity." A few weeks after, in Dec. 1832, 
Champollion le Jeune was followed to the grave by the noblest men 
of France ; and the wreath of " Immortelles " hung over his sepul- 
chre, symbolized the imperishable fame of the resuscitator of the 
earliest records mankind has hitherto possessed. 

His posthumous works were put to press at the expense of the 
nation. The third and last part of his grammar of hieroglyphics 
appeared in 1841 ; while the great work, styled " Les Monuments 
de l'Egypte et de la Nubic," with 400 plates, is in progress of distri- 
bution, if not already completed.* His autograph dictionary is 
ei'.her published, or nearly so ; and since his demise has precluded 
the possibility of giving to the public exact translations of the plates, 
According to the master's close interpretation, his learned brother, 
Champollion Figeac, erudite in ancient literature, and conservator 
of the Royal Library at Paris, has condensed into a volume, that 
appeared in 18 10, under the title of " Ancient Egypt," a history, 
whose only fault is its brevity. 

On the demise of the illustrious Frenchman, the task that devolved 
on his Italian c.lleague was herculean ; and the eyes of the learned 
turned, with some anxiety, upon the only surviving representative 
of Champollion, the erudite Tuscan, Professor Ippolito Rosellini, of 
Pisa, whose classical acquirements, though justly celebrated, might not 
perhaps have been sufficient to supply the vacuum created in hiero. 
glyphical archaeology. In 1832, the Italian scholar produced the 
first volume of hi3 " Monuments of Egypt and Nubia," announcing 
at the same time, that he should undertake, in ten volumes of text, 
and four hundred plates, to furnish complete the civil, military, reli- 
gious, and monumental history of early Egypt. Faithfully and tri- 
umphantly has Professor Rosellini fulfilled the task allotted to him ; 
nor, if we regret that Champollion did not live to reap the full meas- 
ure of the harvest, can we refrain from acknowledging, that his place 
has been filled by a man, who, with the qualities and attributes of a 
gentleman, combines the profound erudition of a universal scholar. 
For the last ten years, Professor Rosellini has been periodically issuing 
the text and plates of the noblest work, which the researches of an 
individual and the liberality of a government have ever produced ; 
nor must the world, in awarding the laurel wreath to the professor, 
forget, that he owes his honorable position, as we do the astonishing 
results themselves, to the patronage of Leopold, grand duke of 
Tuscany. 

It was in 1832, that the greatest expiring effort was made to stem 
the hieroglyphical success of Champollion, when the immortal paleo- 
grapher was already enveloped in his winding sheet ; and Klaproth 
has the unenviable merit of recording his own learned perverseness 
in the paths of error. He published a " critical examination of the 
labors of the late Monsieur Champollion, upon hieroglyphics ; " 
whereby he fancied, as did some of his readers, that by ingenious 
antitheses, and not a few mistatements, he had rendered all these 
researches in the new school of interpretation abortive. Those, who 
are acquainted with his work alone, may perhaps give it a weight it 
does not deserve. 

There have been a few other insignificant attempts, in England 
and elsewhere, to substitute untenable absurdities, and among them 
are to be included those endeavors to translate hieroglyphics by 
Hebrew alone, in the room of Champollion's system ; but their exis- 
tence was ephemeral. And, while the Hierologist, in 1843, looks 
down from his tower of strength on the last fugitives of the once 
tremendous hostile phalanx, he cheerfully accords to the Russian 
mystagogue (who, of course, has never been in Egypt,) Monsieur de 
Goulianoff, (upon the strength of his ponderous tomes on " L'Ar- 
chaeologie Egyptienne," which appeared in 1839,) the exclusive honor 
of being, save in his undeniable profundity of research, a century be- 
hind the age. We can scarcely suppose, that any future scholar 
will peril his reputation by opposition to the general principles of 
Champollion's science ; and may therefore conclude that no true 
savan will imitate Boabdil, when, with weeping eyes and aching 
heart, he cast his last lingering look on the receding Alhambra, and 
with him utter " l'ultimo sospiro del Moro" — the last sigh of the 
Moor. 

But there were some learned men who, fully conceding to Cham- 
pollion's system the merit of translation, were led, by their knowledge 
of the Coptic tongue, to doubt the correctness of a theory which main- 
tained, " that a hieroglyphical text is the Coptic language written in 
(symbolic, figurative and -phonetic) hieroglyphics, instead of in the 
ordinary Coptic letters; or otherwise in the Greek character, with 
the addition of half a dozen signs taken from the enchorial or de- 
motic texts." On the publication of the first part of the " Grammaire 
Egyptienne," it was demonstrated, that, although the translation of 
a hieroglyphical text into French may be perfectly correct ; yet, that 
the prior reduction, or transposition, of each hieroglyphic sign into 
a corresponding Coptic letter, or word, did not therefore constitute 
the Coptic, as known to us by the translations of the Bible, homilies, 
and liturgies, which in that language have been preserved to us. 



* 1 have seen all but the 40th, or final number. 



This view was sustained, with great force of argument, by the learned 
Dujardin in 1835, and by others on the Continent, as by Dr. Henry 
Tattam in England. It became very important to extend the limited 
knowledge hitherto possessed of that dead language in Europe, and 
Mons. Dujardin was sent, by the enlightened French government, to 
Egypt ; where he died, before he had completed his researches and 
his collection of manuscripts, but not before he had fully acknow- 
ledged, that, in his criticisms on Champollion, he had been somewhat 
premature. In 1838, Dr. Henry Tattam visited Egypt, with similar 
views, and obtained a great accession of Coptic MSS. ; and, what 
was infinitely more valuable, the transcript of a great Coptic and 
Arabic lexicon, belonging to the Copt patriarch, at Cairo ; by means 
of these aids this profound scholar has extended his Coptic dictionary 
by several thousand words. Professor Peyron issued, in due course, 
a most useful Coptic dictionary, more peculiarly destined to facilitate 
"hieroglyphical interpretations than any previous lexicographer had 
attempted. Other learned Coptic students, Rosellini, Leipsius, Birch, 
&c, have given important developments to the deciphering of Egyp- 
tian legends, of which the hieroglyphic and hieratic forms may now 
be said to be almost entirely recovered ; but owing mainly to the 
paucity of documents, the progress in the demotic text, has not yet 
been as complete. Dr. Leipsius' "Letter on the hieroglyphic alpha- 
bet," 1836, is a wonderful analysis of this complex system ; and 
when the French and Italian hieroglyphical dictionaries, and the 
thorough critical translation of the mighty papyrus, at Turin, the 
"Ritual of the Dead,"* which we may look for within a couple of 
years, shall have been published, it will then be in the power of any 
one, whose acquirements in modern and ancient classics are mode- 
rately extensive, to verify after more or less study, the translations 
afforded by hierological professors. 

While the governments of France and Tuscany, with such wisdom 
and liberality, have fostered the new school of Egyptian literature ; 
and while, it must be allowed, the Continental colleges have furnished 
the masters of the still incipient hieroglyphical science, there are 
some private individuals hi England, who not only have kept pace 
with Continental progress, but, each in his sphere of action, has con- 
tributed wonderfully to unveil to us the glories of Pharaonic epochs, 
and is entitled to the warmest tribute of applause. 

First on the catalogue stands Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, whose 
universality of erudition, and thorough acquaintance with ancient 
and modern Egypt, are recognized by all who knew his former labors, 
and are attested by his " Topography of Thebes;" London, 1835 — 
and by the " Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians ;" first 
and second series-; London, 1837, and 1841. Sir J. G.Wilkinson 
spent last winter again in Egypt ; and is preparing other evidences 
of his zeal in hieroglyphical researches. And, while the name of 
Burton is prominent in the still circumscribed but very learned array 
of English hieroglyphical laborers, that of Birch promises to take 
rank with Champollion, Rosellini, Leipsius and Wilkinson, in Egyp- 
tian literature. 

In 1835, Hoskins published his valuable " Travels in Ethiopia." 
He corrected many of the inadvertencies of Cailleaud ; and by the 
production of a volume of undeniable facts, has enabled us to draw 
conclusions on ancient Meroe, different, as will be shown, from some 
of those deduced by the author himself. The splendid folios of 
Colonel Howard Vyse record his munificent promotion of scientific 
researches; and his costly labors at the pyramids have opened to our 
astounded contemplation views of an unquestionable antiquity, sur- 
passing, as I shall explain, all previous expectation. Other works are 
issuing from the Continental and English press, which will add infi- 
nitely to our knowledge, and to the fame of their authors. 

In short, the little spring of pure water which first bubbled from 
the Rosetta Stone, has, in 23 years, now swoln into a mighty flood; 
overwhelming all opposition ; sweeping aside or carrying in its surges, 
those whose inclination would induce. them to stem its force ; and, 
at the present hour, we know more of positive Egyptian history and 
of the ancient inhabitants of Egypt, ages previous to the patriarch 
Abraham, than on many subjects we can assert of our acquaintance 
with England before Alfred the Great, or with France before Char- 
lemagne ! 

In addition to all these investigations, prosecuted in France, in 
Italy, and in England ; Prussia has granted her generous aid in favor 
of the good cause, by decreeing that a large sum should be placed at 
the disposal of Dr. Leipsius, who, with seven scientific gentlemen, 
is now in Egypt, there to retrace the steps of his predecessors, over 
the sacred ground hallowed by countless generations of antiquity. 
At Leyden, Dr. Leemans ; and some scholars in Holland ; at Turin, 
Berlin, Rome, and Vienna, other consumers of the midnight oil are 
emulating the students of Paris, Florence, and London. In Cairo, 
our " Egyptian Society" boasts (among its members) of cooperators 
in the reconstruction of the venerable edifice, whose works will, ere 
long, establish their claims to a front rank : and it is owing to the 
advantages afforded to me by an institution, of which I stand second 
on the list of founders, that I am enabled to present here in a succinct, 
but, I believe, a correct view of the actual position of Egyptian hie- 



*Since this was written, I have received from this enthusiastic German Egyptologist, 
who is now in Egypt, a catalogue of his various works, and find that he translated 
the Ritual into German, in 1841 ! It is probable, that this papyrus will form the fma. 
portion of Roselini's work. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



11 



roglyphical archaeology, no less than some insight into the not gene- 
rally known results of these glorious researches. 

Having now given a sketch of the labors of European students in 
hieroglyphical literature, and of the personal account of the Egypto- 
logists of the Champollion school, I will hazard the observation, that 
the narrative is new to most of those who read it in America ; and 
if I can convince them of the reality of the positions advanced, their 
conviction will be accompanied by a feeling of surprise, that they 
have hitherto heard so little on these subjects. 

I do not presume to speculate much upon the causes, that have 
deprived America of the light (I speak generally) which, emanating 
from mouldering Egypt, is pouring like a flood over Europe. One 
of the main causes seems to me to be, that, as most of the best works 
are published in foreign languages, and many at large cost, and that 
as their appearance "en masse," dates back not much further 
than 1836, sufficient interval has not yet elapsed, for the adequate 
promulgation of the new science in this country, beyond what may be 
gleaned from the learned works of Sir J. G. Wilkinson ; whose last 
production made its appearance in 1841. Another cause may be in 
the associations connected with the very name of Egypt — a land of 
mystery — for 2000 years covered with a veil of darkness ; and, were 
I not half an Egyptian myself, it would seem presumption in me to 
assert (what, by the way, is very easily sustained,) that till lately, 
common sense has had very little to do with the discussions of the 
literati of the Continent, of England, and of the United States, upon 
subjects connected with that mystified country — and this as much 
upon its modern, as upon its ancient state. Meanwhile, I need only 
refer to the works published in all countries, save by the genuine 
hierological school on ancient, and by Mr. Lane on modern Egypt, 
for a series of conflicting statements, that baffle the most conscientious 
and laborious inquirers after truth. 

This is the first time that, in any country, a series of popular lec- 
tures and essays has been projected, for the familiar elucidation of 
topics hitherto discussed only by the learned ; though far be it from 
me to pretend to the latter character. The very term hieroglyphics 
is a common bye-word in our tongue, to designate anything incom- 
prehensible ! and, if I venture to show, that the apprehended unin- 
telligibility of Egyptian hieroglyphics is, in 1843, an illusion, I trust 
that the truth, and the undeniable importance of the subjects handled, 
will not be doubted, in consequence of the insufficiency of my ex- 
planations ; nor the unintentional errors of the writer be a reason 
for withholding from the labors of the Champollion school the atten- 
tion they so imperiously demand. 

Yet, if America has hitherto been quiescent, and tardy in further- 
ing the progress of Egyptian developments, it will be satisfactory to 
her people to be assured, that there is one American savan who, at a 
bound, will carry a very important branch of these sciences to unan- 
ticipated and glorious results. The name of Dr. Samuel George 
Morton, vice-president of the " Academy of Natural Sciences" at 
Philadelphia, is already associated with profound researches into the 
primeval history of man on this continent ; and no student of anthro- 
pology but has been enlightened by his " Crania Americana." For- 
tuitous circumstances, consequent on his own instigation, have 
enabled me to place before Dr. Morton a mass of crude materials, 
which form the basis of the work, now preparing for the press, under 
the title of " Crania jEgyptiaca." When, in the course of these chap- 
ters, I approach the subject of ancient ethnology, as deducible from 
the monuments of Egypt, it will be seen what an immense light is, for 
the first time, thrown on the origin of the ancient Egyptian race by 
Dr. Morton's researches; and, in the interim, I seize this opportunity 
to express my acknowledgments for the varied instruction I have de- 
rived from our intercourse, no less than my gratitude for the manifold 
kindnesses received at his hands. 

In treating on Egyptian subjects, it behoves me, as it is likewise 
due to my valued friend, Mr. F. Catherwood, to state, that I am aware 
of his having preceded me. Having had the pleasure of forming, 
years ago, at Cairo, those friendly relations with him that continue 
to the present hour, there are none more able than myself to appre- 
ciate his intimate acquaintance with that ancient country ; and, in 
various branches of study I am happy to acknowledge his superior 
attainments. Mr. Catherwood's lectures embraced a much wider 
field of observation than my own dissertations, as he could add his 
researches in other Eastern countries — particularly in Palestine — to 
those he prosecuted for several years in Egypt. My illustrations of 
antiquity are confined to the Valley of the Nile. At the time when 
Mr. Catherwood lectured on Egypt, the bulk of the works from which 
I have culled the matters whereon I intend to descant, had not issued 
from the press; and none, I may say, had reached this country. Any 
difference, therefore, in our respective Egyptian views, is attributable 
to these circumstances, rather than to any deficiency on Mr. Cather- 
wood's part at the time of his lectures. Since those days, Mr. Cather- 
wood's attention has been turned to a distinct, and still more arduous 
field of antiquarian investigation ; and the long-buried and almost 
incredible monumental remains in Central America, exhumed with 
unlooked-for and extraordinary success by Mr. John L. Stephens, 
have given to Mr. Catherwood such opportunities for distinguishing 
nimself, that, in treating on ancient Egypt, I have his assurances 
that I am not trenching upon his interests or pursuits. 

I was in this country at the time of Mr. Buckingham's arrival, and 



am acquainted with his literary works. Not having attended ins 
lectures, I know them only from hearsay, through the periodical press, 
or from some of his own publications. No comparison can consist- 
ently be instituted between things wherein there exists no parity ; 
and, as I am particularly desirous that my subjects, opinions, acquire- 
ments, intentions, lectures, and principles, should be considered 
totally distinct from those of Mr. Buckingham, it would be unbe- 
coming, as well as unnecessary, to say more on this head. 

It has been already casually stated, that I have been a sojourner 
in the land of Egypt, for the greater part of twenty-three years. 
Congenial tastes have, since my boyhood, induced me, as often as 
opportunities occurred, to keep pace with the writings of eminent 
travellers ; while, with most of those who have visited Egypt, and 
especially with those who followed out the new discoveries, I have 
been on terms of social intimacy, and with many I am in correspond- 
ence. A chequered, and not an idle life, enables me to speak on 
many subjects from personal experience and long-practiced know, 
ledge — and for topographical acquaintance with that country, I can 
say, that there is little space on either side of the Nile, from the sea 
beach to the second Cataract, with which my sporting habits have 
not rendered me familiar. In 1839, having resolved to absent myself 
for an indefinite period, from the land of my adoption, I took advan 
tage of nearly two years' leisure to ascertain the amount of informa- 
tion gleaned, by the Champollion school, on early Egyptian history 
I indulged my migrating propensities by a visit to Upper Egypt and 
Nubia, as well as by various dromedary excursions into the eastern 
and western deserts adjacent to Cairo. My sedentary hours were 
occupied in studying the works whence I derive such antiquarian 
information as I possess, or in discussing relative questions with the 
many talented men and erudite scholars who adorned our Egypto 
European community. 

I pretend to no discoveries of my own. I have availed myself of 
the productions of the learned in Egyptian archaeology, that are, ot 
have been, within my reach. I have adopted all of them in different, 
proportions, I frequently use the language of some ; have taken 
ideas from all ; and after this avowal, trust that I shall escape the 
charge of plagiarism ; for who, in 1843, can treat of a country which, 
for two thousand three hundred years, has occupied the pens and the 
more or less critical examinations of the learned of every ancient 
and modern nation, without availing himself of the information con 
tained in the published labors of his predecessors ? 

The only power to which I venture to lay claim, is that of dis^ 
crimination in the choice of my authorities ; and, it will be found, 
that, while making use of the same facts to be met with in the works 
of the Champollions, Rosellini, Wilkinson, &c, I sometimes attempt 
to assign reasons differing from theirs, or for more extensive con 
elusions. 

During a stay of some months in the year 1841, in England, I 
thought that if I returned to America, I should be able to occupy an 
interval of time, profitably to myself, and perhaps advantageously to 
others, as a lecturer on early Egyptian subjects. A long sea voyage 
threw me out of the season ; and when I sought in American libra- 
ries for some of the great works of the New School, I found, to my 
extreme regret, that the most important were wanting. 

I had therefore valid grounds for supposing that, to the majority 
of those I might address, the manner of elucidating hieroglyphical 
arcana, no less than many of the practical results themselves, would 
at least present the charm of novelty ; but, in the absence of indis- . 
putable facsimiles of Egyptian legends and monumental subjects, it 
was impossible to prepare any satisfactory pictorial illustrations. 

It is with sincere pleasure, that I now express my acknowledge- 
ments to my valued friend, R. K. Haight, Esq., of New- York, 
whose friendship I acquired some years ago in Egypt, for supplying, 
independently of his other varied kindnesses, these deficiencies of 
books, by procuring from Europe " I Monumenti dell 'Egitto e dello. 
Nubia," of Professor Rosellini. This invaluable -work, the first 
and the only copy (complete as far as it has hitherto appeared) exist- 
ing in the United States, has been lent to me by Mr. H., and is now 
in my possession. From this work, with occasional extracts from 
others, the illustrations that embellish my oral lectures have been 
copied, with scrupulous fidelity, by Philadelphian artists. The only de- 
viation from the originals lies in the requisite enlargement of the copies ; 
but beyond this, in my pictorial representations, no departure in color, 
or in anything else, has been made from the original plates. 

Finally : if my readers will kindly take into consideration, that 
my life has been spent, and my exertions, till I landed in New- York 
in January, 1842, have been actively directed in multifarious pur- 
suits, totally distinct in nature from the position I now occupy before 
them, I trust they will look with indulgence on the attempt made to 
acquit myself of the agreeable, but arduous task before me, rather 
than at the deficiencies proceeding from my own want of ability. 



CHAPTER SECOND. 

The origin of the Art of Writing loses itself among the nebulou' 
periods of man's primeval history. With the original ethnographic 
varieties of the human species, the primitive geographical distribu- 
tion of mankind, the patriarchal fountains of a once pure religion, 



12 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



and the earliest sources of the diversity of language, must be asso- 
ciated the first developments of that art, which, from the remotest 
periods, has enabled man to record his history, and to overcome space 
and time in the transmission of his thoughts. 

And it must be allowed, that on all these subjects, however success, 
iully the efforts of antiquaries, in the last quarter of a century, have 
enlightened us with unexpected and almost unhoped-for glimpses of 
the truth ; yet, beyond a certain epoch, of which the antiquity is 
scarcely definable, their lights fail us ; and the origin of letters, with 
a thousand accompanying questions, is lost in the night of time ; 
wherein, to use the beautiful words of Bryant, " These subjects as- 
sume the fantastic forms of an evening cloud ; we seem to descry 
castles, and mountains, and gigantic appearances, but, while we 
gaze, the forms die away, and are soon lost in gloom and uncertainty." 
All the progress that modern researches have, as yet, achieved, is to 
carry back the positive epoch of the absolute existence of writing, 
rather than to have lifted the veil, which conceals its primeval origin. 
The lamp of modern inquiry has illumined our pathway, and ex- 
tended our knowledge a few hundred years beyond the point reached 
by our forefathers. Here and there, its projectile ray is through the 
gloom reflected, by some diamond imbedded in the distant rock ; 
but the shadows of the cavern flit before our eyes, and the fire-damp 
warns us of the danger of advance. 

Whether the art of writing was a consequence of the necessities 
of human sooiety, the result of a progress from the rude savage to 
the civilized man, can be looked upon now-a-days only as a curious 
speculation. Nor when we shall take into consideration, in a sub- 
sequent chapter, the subject of Chronology, can this hypothesis be 
consistently sustained, without overthrowing the entire fabric of 
Scriptural history ; because, I trust, that I shall be able to demon- 
strate, from the positive records of Egypt, that if to the already 
almost biblically-irreconcileable antiquity, imperiously required for the 
monuments still erect in that country, we add the countless ages that 
would be required, before the theoretical primitive Savage could 
conceive, much less execute, such an eternal edifice as one pyramid, 
we must fall back upon geological, and cease to define his progress 
by chronological periods. Far less inconsistent with the refinement 
in arts and sciences, that we encounter at the remotest epoch of 
Egyptian history, and infinitely more in accordance is it with the 
Sacred Word, to class the art of writing among those primeval, if 
not antediluvian, revelations to man, of which we possess much col- 
lateral evidence ; although of the act we have no positive record, 
and of the era we are utterly uncertain. 

Until the discoveries of Champollion enabled us to produce " writ, 
ings," " sculptured letters," and " painted alphabetic signs," coeval 
with generations, that in the days of the Patriarch Abraham had long 
ceased to exist, not only has writing been traced to the Hebrews, 
Chinese, Phoenicians, Chaldeans, Hindoos, or Egyptians, according 
to the respective theories of the scholar, his prejudices and partiali- 
ties ; but, it was maintained by some of the learned, that we owe the 
art of writing to Moses, the Hebrew Lawgiver ; and that the Tablets 
of stone, in the wilderness of Sinai, are the first authentic evidence 
we possess of early alphabetic writing ; whence the conclusion 
would inevitably follow, that this inestimable blessing had been denied 
to man, until the 15th century before the Christian era ! 

That such an hypothesis is fallacious, may be shown by Scripture 
itself; even were we deprived of the unanswerable proofs to be 
gleaned from Gentile records. In Gen. v. 1st — " This is the book of 
the generations of Adam" — reference is made to the book of gene- 
alogy; whence it irresistibly follows, that writing must have been in 
use among the antediluvian patriarchs ; and, under the view that 
writing was a divine revelation, the same Almighty power that, ac- 
cording to the preceding proposition, instructed Moses, could have 
equally vouchsafed a similar inspiration to any patriarch from Adam 
to Noah ; nor does it seem consistent with the merciful dispensation 
which preserved" Noah's family through the grand cataclysm, and 
had condescended, according to the biblical record, to teach him 
those multitudinous arts indispensably requisite to the construction 
of a vessel destined to pass uninjured through the tempests of the 
deluge, that the Almighty, by withholding the art of writing, should 
have left the account of antediluvian events to the vicissitudes of 
oral tradition, or denied to Noah's holy family the practice of that 
art, which, it is maintained, was conceded first to Moses. 

But there are other arguments, that confirm the existence of the 
art of writing in antediluvian epochs (whether by symbols or by 
alphabetic signs,) to be gathered from a critical examination of the 
Pentateuch ; and, while I would casually observe, that " Moses was 

learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" — Acts vii. 22 I will 

point out some of the reasons for this assertion. 

The five books of Moses* carry with them internal evidence, not 
of one sole, connected, and original composition, but of a compila- 
tion, by an inspired writer, from earlier annals. " The genealogical 
tables and family records of various tribes, that are found embodied 
in the Pentateuch, bear the appearance of documents copied from 
ivritten archives. They display no trait which might lead us to 



* Vide Prichard's Egyptian Mythology-Wiseman's Lectures-and " Hebrew Cha 
meters ueriveC from Hieroglyphics." by John Lamb. I). D.. Master of Corpus C. Col- 
lege, Cambridge-London, 1835. References will therein be found to the works, chiefly 
of German Hebraical students, on which the above assertions are grounded. 



ascribe their production to the dictates of immediate revelation, nor 
are we anywhere informed that such in reality was their origin. We 
are aware that similar documents were constructed by the inspired 
writers of the Gospels, from national archives or family memorials.' 

The obvious presumption is, that Moses obtained records of a 
like description from similar sources, unless it can be shown that no 
such means were in existence at the time. We have the authority 
of Genesis v., 1, for asserting the existence of a book of genealogies 
in the time of Noah ; and a city, mentioned by Joshua, was named 
in Hebrew, " Kirjath Sefer" — the City of Letters. It is impossible 
to prove that letters were unknown before Moses ; and the Hebrews 
of his day appear even to have had two distinct modes of writing; 
the characters of which, in one case, were alphabetic, and in the 
other symbolic. The inscription on the Ephod itself is said — Exodus 
xxviii., 36 — to have been written in characters " like the engravings 
of a signet;" and the original type of the sacred Urim and Thuk- 
mim was, as will hereafter be shown, derived from an earlier combi- 
nation of emblems, possibly Egyptian. We have, therefore, many 
reasons to believe that the use of letters, and the practice of preserving 
chronicles and genealogies, were known to the Hebrews long before 
Moses : while, in any case, if an attempt were made, in violation of 
all legitimate inferences, to draw attestation from Holy Writ, and it 
were proved that, until the time of Moses, the Jews were unable to 
preserve their national annals save by oral tradition, it would, in the 
present advanced state of positive knowledge in the history of contem- 
porary Gentile nations (who, ages anterior to Moses, had authentic 
and written chronicles,) show that the Israelites were, till the 15th cen- 
tury before Christ, more ignorant than any great people of antiquity 
— a position which, I presume, would be as detrimental to Scrip- 
tural authenticity, as, in truth, it would be contrary to reason and 
to fact. 

But it has been demonstrated, by a succession of eminent scholars, 
since the year 1753, that a critical examination of the Hebrew text 
of Genesis establishes the truth of the assertion, that this book con- 
tains several original records; each bearing on its face the strongest 
marks of authenticity, and of long anterior antiquity, which have 
been brought together by the hand of Moses. Genesis contains 
repetitions and double narratives of the same events — distinguished 
by different characteristics of style, distinctly marked. Two histo- 
ries are clearly defined in the Hebrew text : in one, the Deity is 
styled Elohim ; and in the other, Jehovah ; besides an infinitude of 
differences in relative style, that leave no doubt, on the mind of the 
scholastic investigator, in regard to the diversity of the records which 
chronicle the same event. 

Again, the Book of Job is, by learned theologians, said not to be 
a Hebrew production ; though accepted, and authenticated, by the 
lawgiver of Israel. Job lived in the land of Uz — Aramanea — of 
which Edom was a district, and Arabia our modern designation 
Job was not a Hebrew of the Hebrews, but an Arabian ; probably 
of Joktan's race : and, according to Hales, his probable epoch was 
about 2337 B. C. ; that is, from 600 to 800 years before Moses. This 
chronological view is further corroborated by the following facts 
with regard to Eliphaz, the Temanite, one of Job's friends. In Ge- 
nesis xxxvi., 4, 10, and in I. Chronicles i., 35, we learn that Eliphaz 
was Esau's eldest son. Now, if this Eliphaz be identified with the 
Eliphaz in Job, it is manifest that Job, being contemporary with Eli- 
phaz, must have preceded Moses by some centuries : and that he is 
thus identified is fairly inferrible; first, from the fact that the name of 
Eliphaz occurs nowhere in the Biblo but in the Book ot Job and in 
the chapters above cited ; and second, from Eliphaz being called the 
Temanite, since we learn from Jeremiah xlix., 7, 20, that Teman 
was a province or portion of Edom, the country of Esau. Job (in 
xix., 23) exclaims, " Oh that my words were written .' Oh that they 
were printed in a book." I presume the Hebrew word, rendered 
printed in our version, does not, in its original language, convey 
strictly this meaning. Again — Job, xxxi., 35 — " Oh that one would 
hear me ! Behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer 
me, and that mine adversary had written a book." It therefore 
follows, that in Job's day (whenever that was) books were not un- 
known. 

His affecting and pious narrative, while it combines with abun- 
dance of other evidence, to prove that the pure belief in One God 
was not limited to the Jewish patriarch Abraham, after the first cor- 
ruption of our forefathers, assures us, that written chronicles, and 
even the sublimest poetry, were in use long before Moses. We are 
likewise thus made aware, that this inspired writer, when he com- 
piled the Pentateuch, did not disdain the records of Gentile nations, 
in the case of Job, to console the Israelites during their forty years of 
tribulation in the wilderness; nor did his descendants consider them 
unworthy of incorporation into their sacred books. We may also 
gather some confirmative inferences, that compilation was not re- 
jected by other inspired writers, from the fact, that the collection of 
sacred poems, received under the names of David's Psalms, were 
composed, at different and distant intervals, some by David, and 
many of them after the Babylonish captivity ; and were subsequently 
collected together in the Hebrew archives, and attributed exclusively, 
though erroneously, to David, by the Jews, as by ourselves. 1 pass 
over the various other instances to be found in the Pentateuch, all 
corroborative of the correctness of trie assertion, that, in Moses' time, 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



13 



books were familiar to the Hebrews ; who were instructed to believe 
that their sins were recorded in the Almighty's book — Exodus xxxii., 
32,33 — which was no new doctrine in the days of Moses ; and I 
extract from Dr. Lamb's invaluable work, the succeeding paragraph, 
as well as other evidences. 

"Every attentive reader of the Bible must have observed, that 
the book of Genesis is divided into two perfectly separate and dis- 
tinct histories. The first part is an account of the Creation, and 
the general history of mankind up to the building of the Tower of 
Babel. The second part is the history of Abraham, and his de- 
scendants ; from the call of the patriarch in the land of Ur of the 
Chaldees, to the death of Joseph, after the settlement of the children 
of Israel in Goshen, in the land of Egypt. The first part contains 
the history of above two thousand years ; and is contained in the ten 
first chapters of Genesis, and nine verses of the eleventh. The second 
part comprises a period of about two hundred and fifty years, and 
occupies the remaining thirty-nine chapters. This history, which 
commences at the beginning of the twelfth chapter, is preceded by 
a genealogical table, tracing Abraham's pedigree up to the patriarch 
Shem. Between the event (Babel) recorded in the ninth verse of 
the eleventh chapter, and the next verse (viz : the call of Abraham,) 
there intervenes a period of nearly four hundred years, during which 
we know nothing of the history of the human race from the sacred 
Scriptures." 

Thus, then, the Israelites, before the Exodus, would have pos- 
sessed two sacred books. One, " Genesis," properly so called ; and 
the other, " The History of Abraham." 

There is no reason for supposing that other contemporary nations 
did net possess, in those early times, similar records ; nor is there 
any reason why other contemporary nations should not have chroni- 
cled all great events, and handed down, perhaps as far as ourselves, 
some of the annals of those events, that took place upon the earth, 
on which the Bible, during an interval of " above four hundred 
years," is strictly silent. It will be seen that the Egyptians have. 

" We know that, in addition to these (books,) the Hebrews had 
another book, entitled li Milchamoth Jehovah" — the " Wars of Jeho- 
vah" — (vague traditions, concerning which mythes abound in Gen- 
tile records, as the wars of the gods with Titan, the Indian primeval 
annals, &c.) " from which a quotation is given in Numbers xxi.,14." 
Learned Hebraists also consider that the Jews, anterior to the age 
of Moses, had a collection of national ballads, in a book, entitled 
" Sepher-Hajashur" — see Joshua x., 13 — " Is not this written in the 
Book of Jasher ? " The frequent use of the words, " and he sang," 
axe deemed to allude to the first sentence of some more ancient 
song ; whence the title of a book was derived — Judges v., 1 — Debo- 
rah's song is an instance. 

It is finally sustained, by great church theologians, that Moses, 
when, under the inspiration of God, he indited the books of the law, 
prefixed to them a history of Abraham and his posterity, as pre- 
served by Israel's family; and at the same time rendered their sacred 
records of the Creation and history of man up to the dispersion at 
Babel (which are presumed to have been written in a different char- 
acter — probably symbolic writing — from that now known to us as 
the Hebrew letters,) into the Hebrew language, as current in Moses' 
day. 

I am thus particular in demonstrating, by biblical evidence, that 
the art of writing did not originate with Moses, lest the position 
now indisputably established, of the prior antiquity of this art among 
Gentile nations, of the earliest periods, should appear to militate 
against the authenticity of the Mosaic record ; and it will be con- 
ceded, that when once, by arguments grounded on the Bible itself, 
the use of books among the Hebrews is carried back to antediluvian 
periods, not only is the charge of heresy in these matters rendered 
nugatory, but the inference in favor of a primary divine revelation 
considerably strengthened. 

The Jews were not the only people who preserved written me- 
morials of the deluge, for among all nations we find vague traditions 
of the event itself; and in many we may trace the former existence 
of written chronicles. If, at the present day, we cannot produce 
voluminous annals, coeval with early postdiluvian eras, in support 
of this assertion, we can adduce abundance of historical reasons, to 
account for the absence of these primeval documents in our day, in 
the fearful destruction of ancient libraries by the barbarous fanaticism 
of numerous nations, and of all creeds ; no less than by accidents, 
and casualties, to which, from their inflammable nature, or perishable 
materials, all literary productions are liable. Without recapitulating 
the various instances of the annihilation of ancient archives in Asia 
Minor, Greece, and Syria, let us remember, that in the defence of 
the arsenal against the furious attacks of an enraged Alexandrian 
populace, Julius Ceesar could not save the Ptolemaic library from 
conflagration ; while the subsequent insensate decree of the ruthless 
Omar, enforced the obliteration of the second mightiest collection of 
ancient chronicles, it had taken 6U0 years to accumulate in the 
Christian Bibliothccal repository at Alexandria. In China, the 
Tartar conquerors devoted to the flames the precious annals of ante- 
rior history ; while, with the same fiendish zeal, their brethren devas- 
tated many of the Indian and Central Asiatic libraries. The Saracenic 
torrent that overthrew the dynasty of Chosroes — " KhuzrufF" — sa- 
tiated its unrelenting destructiveness on the volumes which for ages 



nad accumulated in Persian archives. And if, in some partial degree, 
the intelligence of the Abbaside Caliphate of Bagdad, the transitory 
encouragement of letters by the various Arab houses, that alternately 
ruled over Egypt, cr the liberal patronage afforded to science and 
literature by the Saracenic dynasties of Morocco and Granada, serve 
to mitigate the anathemas, which we are justified in heaping on the 
entire race of "Amaweeyeh" Saracens, let no interposing hand save 
from execration the descendants of the Seljook, or Turcoman, with 
those of the untameable and desecrating Mogul. At this very hour, 
the Scythian horde, encamped amid the ashes of once populous and 
civilized communities, is the same irredeemable aggregation of mis- 
creants, from Constantinople to Egypt, as in former days; and if 
we are now alive to deplore the historical losses we owe to Turk- 
ish barbarism, it is solely to the Christian lances of our own chival- 
rous ancestry, and, at the present hour, to the dreaded length of our 
bayonets, that, under Providence, we are indebted. Mohammed 
Ali, the idol of a false philanthropy, the praise-bespattered mocker of 
European civilization, has destroyed, in Egypt, more monuments of 
antiquity, than the Hyk>hos, than Cambyses, than Artaxerxes Ochus 
than Lathyrus ; and, while mystified Europe chants " Io paeans " 
for his great intentions, he has permitted, as I have elsewhere shown, 
the annihilation of more historical legends in 40 years, than had 
been compassed by 18 centuries of Roman, Byzantian, Arab, or 
Ottoman misrule. 

Did not the Tyrian annals perish with the fleets and fortresses of 
Phoenicia, on the overthrow of the mistress of the deep by Alexander? 
Had Marius no hand in the obliteration of Punic chronicles at Car- 
thage ? and is not Titus amenable for the sacrilegous annihilation 
of Hebrew archives on the fall of Hierosolima ? Did not Brennus, 
the Gaul, destroy the seven-hilled city herself, with all her public 
registers, in 390 B. C? 

Wherever we turn in the history of nations, we are met by indis- 
putable evidence of the former existence of ancient chronicles through, 
out the world, accumulated during countless centuries, while we are 
harrowed by the event, which has deprived us of their possession. 

Impartiality cannot forget, that misdirected zeal, and monkish 
fanaticism, have marked every Christian country with a similar dis- 
regard for the preservation of early annals ; nor can we spare even 
our ancestors from the charge of cancelling, in order to insert the 
reveries of a superstitious recluse, those invaluable pages known to 
us as Palimpsesti. 

Where is the history of Hecataeus of Miletus ? where the annals 
of Manetho, Berosus, or Eratosthenes ? a few mutilated fragments, 
are all we possess of their compendious volumes ! And where are 
the still earlier records, whence they compiled their information ? 
Eternally lost — save such as Champollion has pointed out on the 
monuments and papyri of Egypt ! But, if we are deprived of the 
original records of the Gentiles, we must not forget, that the deified 
Thoth — the first Hermes (erroneously confounded with Hermes Tris- 
megistus) wrote, and perhaps too, in antediluvian periods, in sacred 
language, and, possibly, in purely symbolic characters, the wisdom 
and philosophy of his times. Again, we must not omit that, after 
the deluge, Thoth the 2nd — or Trismegistus, mystically defined as 
an incarnation of his antediluvian prototype — had written forty-two 

volumes, preserved with religious care, according to Clement, 

of Alexandria, A. D. 194, in which were contained all the rules, pre- 
cepts, and documents, relating to religion, to dogma, to government, 
cosmogony, to astronomy, to geography, to medicine, and to all those 
arts and sciences, whose perfection is attested by the still standing 
works, and the still existing remains of the ancient Egyptians. 

Authorities, contemporary with the decline of Pharaonic glory, 
enumerated, after the Persian conquest, B.C. 525, above twenty 
thousand volumes, in constant, universal, and popular use among the 
inhabitants of Egypt; the productions of a Suphis, Athothis, Necho, 
and Petosiris — all Egyptian Pharaohs ; no less than of priests and 
other philosophers, who lived, nearly all of them, ages before Moses ; 
and how could the Jewish historian have been " learned in all the wis- 
dom of the Egyptians." — Acts vii., 22 — if, in the course of his sacer- 
dotal education at Heliopolis, or Memphis, he was not initiated in 
the mysteries, as well as "proficient in hieroglyphic writing ? and if. 
he had not enjoyed free access to the Egyptian primeval records ? 

All history testifies to the existence of books, on every subject, in 
early Egypt. We know the names of many of the authors ; some, 
times the title of the work ; often the subject of their literary labors. 

Poems, and, above all others, epic poems were common in Egypt; 
and were publicly chanted to the praises of deites, or to perpetuate 
the glorious actions of heroes. Homer, it is said, visited Egypt about 
the 9th century B. C; and the poet Naucratis charges him with 
gleaning from Egyptian bards, the ideas which, with such sublimity 
of thought and diction, he perpetuated in his Iliad and Odyssey. 

Of the existence of such poems, no doubt can now be sustained, 
after reading Salvolinis' translation of the hieratic papyrus (known 
as Sallier's) at Paris, recording the conquests of Ramses the Great, 
about B. C. 1530. And, of the early existence of royal and national 
libraries, contemporary with, if not prior to the epoch of Moses, we 
are made certain by the following fact. That magnificent ruin at 
Thebes, miscalled the Memnonium, is, I think without doubt, the 
palace of Osymandias, described by Dicdorus, as seen by Hecata:us 
in the 59th Olympiad. It then contained a library of sacred books; 



14 



ANCIENT EGYPT 



over the entrance-gateway of which was inscribed, " the remedy for 
the soul." This palace is the Ramsessium, a temple-palace of 
Ramses 3rd, (Sesostris) and over the mouldering doorway, which 
once led from the hall to the now-destroyed bibliothecal repository, 
Champollion was the first to read in hieroglyphics over the heads of 
" Thoth " and " Saf k" — the male and female deities of arts, sciences, 
and letters — the remarkably appropriate titles " Lady of Letters " — 
and "President of the Library!" 

The door of the library, at the Ramsessium, might be cavilled at, 
on the ground of its erection about the times of Moses. We will go 
back 200 years, to the sanctuary of the temple of Luqsor — of the 
day of Amunoph the 3rd — whom the Greeks and Romans degraded 
into the fabulous Memnon! and whose statue became vocal, for- 
sooth ! Here an inscription over " Thoth " begins, " discourse of 
the Lord of the divine writings " — and another over " Safk, Lady 
of Letters.'" 

The enumeration of all the literary works of the Ancient Egyp- 
tians, of which we have mementos, requires little beyond extracts 
from Champollion Figeac ; but, as the detail does not possess suf- 
ficient interest to general readers, I limit myself to the main features 
of the theme. The discoveries of the ardent investigators of the 
new school have authenticated as Egyptian in origin, however their 
mythology was misconstrued by the authors, or their copyists, the 
ancient writings of Apuleius, Pcemander, Horus-Apollo, Hermapion ; 
as well as those fragments, known to classical archaeologists as the 
Hermetic books- From the latter, I have taken the prophetic motto, 
that heads in my lecture-room the illustrative transparency — as given 
by Wilkinson : 

" O jEgypte, jEgypte .... sola? supererunt fabulse, et aeque in- 
credibiles posteris .... sola supererunt verba lapidibus incisa." 
And I render, from the French of Champollion Figeac, the touching 
lament the whole paragraph contains: 

" O Egypt, Egypt ! a time shall come, when, in lieu of a pure reli- 
gion, and of a pure belief, thou wilt possess nought but ridiculous 
fables, incredible to posterity ; and nothing will remain to thee, but 
words engraven on stones — the only monuments that will attest thy 
piety." — {Books of Hermes.) 

The pure resilitions of Egyptian philosophical doctrines start, in 
spite of their Grecian chrysalis, from all the pages we possess of 
Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle ; and evince, that in philo- 
sophy, as in everything else, the Greeks borrowed from the Egyp- 
tians ; who are not, however, amenable for errors, that originate in 
the vanity, volatility, and misapprehension of the Hellenes ; and 
which invest the profound and practical wisdom of the teachers, 
with the puerilities of the pupils. The touchstone of hieroglyphical 
analysis now enables us to cull the Nilotic pearls from the mound, 
and return them with honor to their proprietors ; leaving the remain- 
der to the Greeks as their exclusive copyright. 

I have been thus prolix, to show that history sacred and profane, 
which, however doubtful before Champollion's discoveries, is now 
supported by hieroglyphical evidence, would alone suffice to over- 
throw the fallacy, that attributes to Moses the invention of letters, or. 
to the Hebrews the exclusive transmission of early annals, descrip- 
tive of some antediluvian, and many postdiluvian events. The 
very Scriptures derive confirmation from the fact, that many early 
nations preserved written legends, as well as oral traditions, of those 
primeval days ; and I have endeavored to account, in the destruction 
of well-authenticated libraries, for the reason, why the Jewish 
Chronicles were, till lately, all that the lapse of ages has preserved 
to us. There are remarkable connections between fragments of 
profane historians, and several parts of Genesis ; and the practice of 
preserving every species of written chronicle, being far more ancient 
than Moses, recedes into the mists of remote antiquity, among nations 
distinct from the Hebrews, ethnographically and geographically, and 
in era anterior to, as in modes of writing, and attributes of speech, 
removed from Jewish assimilation or connection. Berosus, who 
wrote B. C. 268, gives a Chaldean history of the ten antediluvian 
geneiations, that differs but in names from the Hebrew account. 
He expressly affirms, that Xisuthrus (whom we term Noah) com- 
piled memoirs of the previous history of mankind before the flood, from 
which all existing accounts were said to have been derived. Allowing 
them to be a Semitic, and therefore, to the Hebrews, a cognate tribe, 
we cannot deny to the Chaldeans a full knowledge of the art of 
writing, at the earliest period, for they must have been familiar with 
some method of writing, before they could construct tables with 
astronomical observations. These tables are allowed by theologian, 
as likewise by astronomical criticism, to date as far back as B. c! 
2234, or 700 years before Moses ! And yet Diodoms distinctly 
avers, that the Babylonians learned astronomy from the Egyptians, 
" being themselves an Egyptian colony." We know, monumentally, 
that Mesopotamia — " Naharina"— -was a subdued country, tributary 
to Egypt, at 1600 B. C. ; and know not during how many centuries 
previously it had been such. Fragments of Sanconiathon lead us to 
inferences confirmatory of Berosus, 

Amid these various records, it would seem, as if the Jews pre- 
served one or more copies of primeval legends, which by Moses 
were compiled into one account ; collating portions of them, perhaps, 
with similar documents, existing in the hieroglyphic character, 
luring his education in Egyptian colleges,* I say '' similar docu- 



ments," because we have the authority of Plato, (see Wilkinson, 4lh 
vol. p. 169,) that when Solon visited Egypt, about 549 B. C, the 
Egyptian priests, with whom he was conversing about " the be- 
ginning of all things," said to him — " You mention one deluge only, 
whereas many happened." I leave it to geologists to define the true 
meaning of the priests, and to concede the correctness of the Egyp- 
tian record. 

The Egyptian priests told Solon many things, that must have 
humbled his Athenian pride of superior knowledge ; but one fact 
that they told him, on geography, is so curious, in regard to the " far 
West," that it is worthy of mention. 

We know the maritime abilities of the Phoenicians, and we can 
adduce tangible reasons to show, that, by orders of Pharaoh Necho, 
Africa had been circumnavigated, and the Cape of Good Hope, 
about 600 B. C, actually doubled, before it was in the year 1497 of 
our era, discovered by Diaz and Vasco dc Gama. 

The Egyptians had intercourse with Hindostan, the Spice Islands, 
and China, long before that period ; and in maritime skill equalled, 
as in geographical knowledge they surpassed all early nations. Now, 
when Solon was receiving that instruction in the Egyptian sacerdotal 
colleges, which rendered him the " wisest of mankind," (among the 
Athenians,) besides gleaning an insight into primeval history, and 
geology, that subsequently induced him to compose a great poem, 
wherein he treated on Attica, before the Ogygian flood, and on the 
vast Island, which had sunk into the Atlantic Ocean ; he was 
informed by " Sonchis, one of the priests, of the existence of the At- 
lantic Isles ; which, Sonchis said, were larger than Africa and 
Asia united." See Wilkinson — " Thebes " — p. 254, extract from 
Plato. 

In the course of these essays and lectures, I shall incidentally 
advert to sundry curious facts of the same kind ; but, as the present 
chapter and the following, are to be devoted to the writings of the 
ancient Egyptians, I proceed to other branches of my subject, with 
this prefatory remark, that is requisite to do away with any seeming 
discrepancy between my assertions, and those views of Holy writ, 
which, in common with many others, I was taught at school. It is 
this: 

That to suppose Hebrew to be the most ancient language, and the 
one spoken by Adam and Noah, is a matter of opinion ; contrary to 
evidence ; immaterial in itself, as regards Christian belief; and non- 
essential to any view of the case ; but to suppose, that, within a 
comparatively few years after Noah, the Jewish annals were the 
only written Chronicles, and that Hebrew was the only language, in 
which histories of antediluvian events were, by the immediate 
descendants of Noah — those whose movements were affected by the 
Dispersion — preserved, is, at the present hour, an untenable fallacy. 
" L'on est revenu de tout 9a." 

That to suppose Moses to be the inventor of letters is an illusion j 
though he may have modified the Hebrew alphabet ; and there are 
some inferences, to be drawn from similarity of alphabetic charac. 
ters, that he may have adopted some Egyptian phonetic improve- 
ments on the primitive Hebrew method of symbolic writings — " like 
the engravings of a signet " — inasmuch, as the Egyptians, for more 
than a thousand years before his time, had used the same symbolic, 
figurative, and phonetic signs, that were in popular use in his day ; 
for, according to Acts vii. 22, " Moses was learned in all the wis- 
dom of the Egyptians." 

It has been clearly shown, by the Rev. Dr. John Lamb, of Cam- 
bridge University, that the Hebrew alphabet may be traced, letter 
for letter, to a primitive hieroglyphic. The greater part of these 
hieroglyphical parents of the present Hebrew alphabet are unques- 
tionably Egyptian ; but while, in principle, I entirely coincide with 
his lucid arrangement, it is necessary for a hierologist to state, that 
some of the symbols are not strictly Egyptian, although it is possible 
other homophones would supply the vacancies. In his opinion, as in 
that of many other English and Continental hebraists, the original, 
and perhaps antediluvian, mode of writing was picture writing, or 
idiographic ; whence all alphabets were subsequently derived ; each 
taking that form consistent with the genius of each language, as 
spoken and written by the earliest families of the human race. 

In speculating, however, upon these hitherto insoluble problems, 
it seems to me orthodox, as well as reasonable, knowing as we do 
from Scripture that books existed long before Moses, and probably 
long before Noah, to reflect upon the following crude supposition, 
which I advance hypothetically, with deference to superior judgment. 
When mankind, either on the primitive peaceful separation of the 
children of Noah, in the days of Peleg (whose name in Hebrew 
means " to divide," and " to separate,") or, on the subsequent vio- 
lent and miraculous dispersion at Babel, in the plains of Shinar, 
sought in varied clinies, and under infinitely-diversified circum- 
stances, to obey the Creator's fiat, " Go forth, be fruitful and multi- 
ply," each distinct family of man, proceeding " in sorrow," " to 
eat bread," by " the sweat of his face, till he return unto the 
ground," carried with the physical diversities, and craniological, 
osteological, capillary, and cuticular varieties of his peculiar race, 
the differences of language. 

Each distinct family of man, (or perhaps only the higher Caucasian 
castes,) may have possessed a transcript of that original, primeval 



* Confr. Faber— Origin of Pagan ldolatry-pp. 202-3 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



U 



chronicle, that contained memorials of the flood, and of anterior 
events. 

To the intervention of time, and vast geographical distances, the 
changes of method, and the alteration of alphabetic signs, may pos- 
sibly be traced, and probably attributed. 

Some nations, in the lapse of ages, may have forgotten the primi- 
tive art of writing ; but have preserved oral traditions of the former 
existence of that art ; and these nations may have set about the re- 
discovery of the mode of transmitting their thoughts, in writing, to 
posterity. And while, under this view, I proceed to show what 
might possibly have been the process, by which this lost art could 
have been recovered, I would observe, that a strong analogy in tra- 
cing writing to primeval Revelation may be found, in ascending to 
the divine origin of the belief in the unity of the Godhead, and of his 
ineffable attributes in the Trinity, (Monotheism, mystically developed 
in triads,) the existence of which pure primeval creed among the 
Gentiles, is shown by the mythological systems of the Hindoos, the 
Pelasgic Greeks, the Orphic philosophers, the Tyrians, the Sidoni- 
ans, the Syrians, the Edessenes, the Chaldeans, the Peruvians, (?) the 
Chinese, and Ultra-Gangetic nations, of the remotest antiquity, to 
have been the same, as, thoroughly demonstrable by hieroglyphical 
discoveries, it is now proved to have been the faith of those initiated 
in the hierophantic mysteries of the traduced, and misunderstood, 
Ancient Egyptians.* 

The narrow limits of this hurried treatise preclude the develop- 
ment I could wish to give to this portion of my subject. In attribu- 
ting the art of writing to primary Revelation, there arises a difficulty 
from the query, how, if the art were known to mankind at the Dis- 
persion, does it happen that each early nation should have used a 
different alphabet ? This might be met, if not answered, by a pa- 
rallel question ; how is it, that each family of man spoke a different 
language after Babel ? We must recognize the will of Divine 
Providence in both cases. 

I cannot reconcile with Scriptural chronology, however extended, 
the lapse of time adequate for the rude uninstructed savage to ac- 
quire, among the myriads of progressive steps toward civilization, 
the art of writing, whether by symbolic, or alphabetic signs. Writ, 
ing may be for ever unnecessary to vast tribes of human beings, who 
are far above the savage in the scale of civilization ; and would, 
assuredly, not have been the art which, for many generations, a sav- 
age community would strive to acquire, or to which their first efforts 
would be directed. Centuries would elapse, before the hypothet- 
ical savage could reach that wonderful process, attested by Egyptian 
monuments, still erect onNilotic shores, whose construction precedes 
Abraham by unnumbered generations. 

But, if we cannot reconcile, with any view of biblical chronology, 
the intervening and undcfinable measure of time, when we start with 
an uninspired savage, and gradually mould him into a civilized man ; 
we have abundance of evidence to bring forward, when, in accord, 
ance with the Pentateuch, we suppose a primeval, and heaven- 
descended state of civilization, from which, after paganism, or 
feteechism, strictly so called, had supplanted the pure primitive creed 
in some nations, (as in the case of Terah, progenitor of the "father 
of the faithful") mankind subsequently fell off. 

So soon as lapse of time, and great geographical distances, had 
separated some families of the human race from all relations with, or 
approximation to the habits of, the others, it is quite rational to con- 
jecture that, in the same manner as the remoter tribes receded from 
the worship of the true Deity, they lost the arts and civilization of their 
primitive origin, and among them the art of writing, or the primeval 
alphabet. Man is prone to deterioration ; and I think it could be tol- 
erably well sustained, though the argument is herein irrelevant, that 
none, but the Caucasian families, possess the vital rudiments for con- 
tinual and progressive moral, physical, and intellectual improvement. 

Yet, oral tradition, handed down from father to son, it may well 
be conceived, would, for an indefinite series of generations, prolong 
the memory of the vague fact, that, at one time, their ancestors pos- 
sessed a mode of expressing, ideographically by symbols, or by any 
other species of mnemonics, their ideas to each other, independ- 
ently of time or space. As society advanced, and the necessities of 
man were, by experience, supplied, some one of those gifted intel- 
lects, that arise in every community, turned his thoughts and efforts to 
rediscover that process, which oral tradition assured him was once 
known to his forefathers ; and, with more or less success, he and his 
descendants perfected a system, which, in some nations, as for 
instance, the Jatethic, is perfect and purely alphabetic. In Mexican 
tribes (so far as, at this day, is known about them in Europe) 
they never appear to have gone much bcyondpictorial representations 
of the scenes, and symbolical expressions of the ideas they strove to 
perpetuate. Among the children of Shem, we may suppose there 
was retained a nearer approximation to the original alphabet, or 
primitive pictorial method of writing. 

In China, among the Mongolian families, the Alphabetic system 
was never successfully reached ; and when they wish to write an 

* Consult the hierologicul authorities; and Cory's "Mythological Inquiry :" Mushet 
"on the Trinity of the Ancients," London, 1837 ; Maurice, " Oriental Trinities ;" Co- 
17. "Ancient Fragments ;" Portal, "Couleurs Symboliques ;" "Symboles des 
£gyptiens," Paris, 1840. Faber " Origin of Pagan Idolatry ;" as well us Frichard, 
and Bryant. 



European name, the characters employed represent the entire sylla. 
hie, or colloquial sound of that syllable, which these characters ex. 
press in ordinary use. In that country (civilized and stationary in 
arts and sciences though it be,) the primary institution of writing by 
pictorial representation of figures, (adopted by the Chinese prior to B 
C. 2269,) was soon changed into arbitrary marks, not for a letter. 
but for the whole word, or idea, though it has never been reduced 
into the simple phonetic forms of our alphabets. 

The arrow-headed, or cuneiform character, (a specimen of which 
is produced further on) used by the ancient Persians down to the 
period of Cambyses and Darius-Nothus, is an anomaly in the order ol 
alphabets, that I have not yet seen satisfactorily explained. 

In Egypt, among the children of Ham, the art of writing was a 
combination of alphabetic, or phonetic signs, (to express a letter;) 
of figurative signs; and of symbolic signs ; with some curious and 
useful abridgements from the hieroglyphic (which comprises th« 
whole of the above three classes) to the hieratic character, and, in 
comparatively modern times, to the demotic or enchorial ; until the 
Greek alphabet, augmented by seven letters taken from the demotic 
texts, was introduced with Christianity, during the Roman dominion, 
and formed those letters known to us as the Coptic. 

How immensely the knowledge, or conviction, that, at some pre- 
vious period, the progenitors of one of these supposititious rediscov- 
erers, rather than inventors, of the art of writing, had the power of 
expressing and perpetuating their thoughts, independently of time 
or space, must have fortified the soul of him who labored to recover 
the lost secret, may well be conceived. He worked upon a certainty , 
as does the child, who endeavors to put together the scattered com. 
ponent parts of a dissected map. The child, being so told, knows 
that it can be done. He derives encouragement from this conviction, 
and, with redoubled energy, bends his intelligence to the task. How 
hopeless must have been the labor of that man, who, without any 
information regarding the possibility of such an achievement, essayed 
to discover, or to invent, a means oi recording his thoughts ! 

I confess, I look upon it as almost impracticable ; and fall back on 
primary revelation. If Columbus, (although, till the Society of north, 
em antiquaries at Copenhagen enlightened us, we used to believa 
the contrary,) had not learned, in his previous visit to Iceland, of 
the existence of a western Continent and of the early voyages of the 
dauntless " Eric the Red," can we well suppose, that, with such 
confidence, he would boldly have steered across the Atlantic from 
Spain to the West Indies? In the same manner, the knowledge 
that there had been a mode of writing in existence formerly, must 
have materially facilitated the rediscovery of letters, by those nations 
that had lost the primeval art. 

One or more families of man in early antiquity, may have redis. 
covered this lost art for themselves, independently of contemporary 
nations. We can trace the affinities of all known alphabets, by his- 
tory and by analytical processes, to a very few parental stocks ; but 
this we do know, that the origin of writing in Egypt is unknown, 
though it is autocthon, or indigenous ; that, at the very earliest time 
of which we can find relics, it was the same system as at any subse- 
quent Pharaonic period, and a perfect system ; that the antiquity of 
the art in Egypt surpasses the record of any mtion on earth, save in 
respect to the first chapters of Genesis ; that, if the Egyptians did not 
invent the alphabet, they rediscovered its equivalent for themselves ; 
and finally, it would be far more easy to derive all phonetic charac- 
ters, not excepting the Hebrew (as shown by the researches of Lamb) 
from the Egyptians, than to maintain that the Egyptians derived their 
art of writing from any other source but the common primeval reve- 
lation, or its remembrance, if they were not the inventors of writing! 

The remote antiquity of hieroglyphical writing, may be inferred 
from the fact, that it must have existed before the use of the solar 
month in Egypt ; which astronomical observations, on Egyptian re- 
cords, prove to have been in use at an epoch close up to the Septua- 
gint era of the Flood. 

From Egyptian annals we may glean some faint confirmation of 
the view, that they either possessed the primeval alphabet, or else 
that they rediscovered its equivalent, from the mystic functions and 
attributes of the two " Thoths " — the first and second Hermes — both 
Egyptian mythological personages, deified as attributes of the God 
head. 

To " Thoth," Mercury, or the first Hermes, the Egyptians ascribed 
the invention of letters ; and there is seeming reason to consider him 
the type of that antediluvian revelation to man, of which the Bible 
gives us indications. He belongs, in Manctho's history, and in the 
" Old Chronicle," to that shadowy period designated as " the rule of 
the gods," to veil under a fable (probably explained by the hiero- 
phants to the initiated) the record of antediluvian periods. 

But, among the deities of Egypt — known, in hieroglyphics, as 
" Thoth, Lord of Pautnouphis " — who, under the Greek appellative 
of Hermes Trismegistus (the thrice-great Hermes,) or "Thoth" the 
second, was an emanation of the first Hermes, there is another " Thoth, 
lord of the divine writings," who was likewise a patron of arts and 
sciences. 

I cannot but speculate, that this second " Thoth " was, in postdilu- 
vian times, the rediscoverer of an art of writing, attributed by the 
Egyptians to the invention, in antediluvian periods, of his namesake 
and prototype, (?) 



16 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



Under Dr. Lamb's view, that Hebrew characters may have been 
the nearest approach to the primeval "picture writing," this redis- 
covery by the second Thoth (who was doubtless a priest and philoso- 
pher,) of the art of writing in Egypt, will account for any diversities 
or analogies between the Egyptian compound hieroglyphic system, 
and the phonetic method adopted by the Hebrews at the Mosaic era, 
no lees than in regard to other purely alphabetic systems. 

The process by which Thoth the second arrived at hieroglyphic 
writing, may have been as follows : 

The first attempts were probably limited to the figurative ox picto- 
rial method of expressing the image of the thing, for the thing itself; 
as the dvawing of a hand, to denote a hand, and so forth. 

In Dgypt, as has been clearly elucidated by the profound Rosellini, 
the arts of design and writing were invariably associated ; and neither 
the Egyptians nor any other nation ever adopted the art of drawing, 
6efore they felt the necessity of writing ; and drawing was produced 
in the endeavor to discover some mode of expressing ideas ; so that 
the people who invented painting and sculpture, were impelled toward 
the exercise of these arts by the desire of writing ; and the means 
taken to write were the causes and producing motives of the art of 
drawing. 

Drawing was therefore the most natural medium, and, in those 
early days, the most effective, to satisfy those cravings, inherent in 
intellectual man, which had in view the creation of a power to com- 
municate with persons removed from the draughtsman by time and 
space, rather than to imitate the various works of nature. The study 
of representing things pictorially, had, in those primitive times, no 
other object than to effect that which was completely achieved by 
the introduction of signs for sounds. 

Of the introduction of these letters, we have the fact before us in 
every Egyptian legend, from the earliest postdiluvian epoch admis- 
sible, down to the extinction of hieroglyphical writing in the third 
century of the Christian era, a period of at least 3000 years ; but we 
cannot name the introducer, except in the legendary Thoth; nor 
state positively how this discovery was made in Egypt. 

The arts of writing, drawing, painting, and sculpture, in ancient 
Egypt, were emblematized by one symbol ; and, in hieroglyphics, 
were expressed thus : 




corresponding phonetically) 



nwt- 



C£kJ 



Skhai. This symbol expressed, in the sacred character, the signifi- 
cation and the sound of the words " to paint," " the painter," " to 
write," and " the writer ;" as also " writings " — ypamiara. The 
symbol itself is compounded of three things, all connected with its 
meaning ; as " the reed," k used in writing, at the present day, by 
the Arabs, and termed *F " qalam ;" " the vase," ^T or ink-bot- 
tle ; and the " scribes' pal I ette," 
his red and black inks, fil M ling t 
tre. 1 



whereon ^5 he poured 
he little hollows in its cen- 



In precisely the same manner, in ancient Greek, the words " to 
describe," " to draw," " to engrave," and " to write," were all com- 
prised in the same verb — ypafyuv. 

By analogical reasoning, then, we may infer, that the progressive 
steps toward the development of hieroglyphical writing, may have 
been in the following order : 

1st. That material objects struck their view, and to transmit them 
to posterity, or to preserve the idea of one of these objects, they 
painted the figure of the thing itself; and this would be figurative 
writing. 

2nd. That the insufficiency of this plan in application was imme 
diately felt. In painting the figure of a man, they could not express 
what man ; and to define him, they added a tropical sign or symbol 
of another thing in some way associated with this particular man. 
This would be symbolic writing. 

3rd. That then certain arbitrary, and in due course, conventional 
signs were added, to express the idea of an immaterial object ; as a 
hatchet for a god, an urjeus (asp) for royalty, &c. 

4th. They finally contrived to introduce divers representatives of 
sound, taking, to denote each letter, those objects the names of which, 
in their language, began with the initial sound of that designation ; 
that is, when they wanted to denote the articulation L, they drew a 
Lion, and so on. This would be phonetic writing ; and is the prin- 
ciple that originated many Semitic alphabets, as the Hebrew, the 
Samaritan, the Phoenician, &c. as well as those of some other nations. 

In Egyptian hieroglyphics, as may be seen in part by the alphabet, 
there are, in some instances, as many as twenty-five different charac- 
ters used to represent one letter, and these are termed "homophones" 
of that letter. 

One immense advantage accrued in monumental legends from this 
variety, for the artist was thus enabled to employ those figures which, 
while representing the articulated sound of the letter, had by their 
form a relation to the idea these signs were to express. The writer 
could thus, by the judicious selection of his letters from the variety 
of his homophones, convey a meaning of admiration, praise, dignity, 



beauty, strength, &c, or he could denote disgust, hatred, insignifi- 
cance, or other depreciatory opinions. 

I will endeavor to render this apparent by an example. Suppose 
we wished to adopt the same system in our language and write the 
word "America " in hieroglyphics. I use pure Egyptian hieroglyphics 
as letters, adapting them to English values : 

A — We might select one out of many more or less apropriate sym- 
bols ; as an asp, apple, altar, amaranth, anchor, archer, arrow, 
antelope, axe. I choose the asp, ^ symbolic of " sove- 
reignty." W 

M — We have a mace, mast, mastiff, moon, mouse, mummy, musket, 

indicative of " military do- 



maize. I select the mace, 
minion." 



E- 



I 



-An ear, egg, eagle, elk, eye. The eagle 
edly the most appropriate, being the 
arms of the Union," and means " cour 



is undoubt- 
" national 
age." 



R — A rabbit, ram, racoon, ring, rock, rope. I take the ram, «»^ f - 
by synecdoche, placing a part for the whole, emblem- Wmb 
atic of " frontal power " — intellect — and sacred to ▼ 

Amun. 

I — An insect, Indian, infant, ivy. An infant iM will typify " the 
juvenile age " and still undeveloped Ijft strength of this 
great country. «/3« 

C — A cake, caldron, cat, clam, carman, constellation, curlew, cone, 
crescent. The crescent would indicate the rising power of 
the United States ; the constellation of stars would emblem- 
atize the States, and is borne aloft in the American banner ; 
but I choose the cake — /^\ the consecrated bread — typical 
of a " civilized region.' 



® 



A — An anchor, or any of the above words beginning with A, would 
answer : the anchor would symbolize " maritime greatness," 
associated with " safety " and "stability"; but not being an 
Egyptian emblem, I take the " sacred Tau," q the symbol 
of " eternal life," which in the alphabet is *-T* an A. 

To designate that by this combination of symbols we mean a 

country, I add the sign ^^^^£, in Coptic "Kali," meaning a 

country, and determinative of geographical appellatives. 
We thus obtain phonetically — 

A M E R I C A 




country : 

while symbolically, the characters chosen imply " sovereignty, mili- 
tary dominion, courage, intelligence, juvenility, civilization, and 
eternal durability." 

This example, however, gives but a faint idea of the beauty, and 
often exquisite propriety, of Egyptian composition, or of the com- 
plexity of the hieroglyphic art of writing. It will be allowed, that, 
even this anglicized illustration of the word America does not render 
its perspicuity very apparent ; and, with a full acquaintance of the 
language, it would be a puzzle to a decipherer. How much more 
so, when the vowels may be omitted, as they generally are, and only 
the consonants written ; as, " MRC, country " ! 

Let the reader figure to himself the fashion introduced in this coun. 
try, of following the graphical system of the barly Egyptians ; and 
that the Capitol at Washington were covered with sculptured and 
painted legends, recording the annals of the United States ! Suppose 
these legends were written with the general suppression of some 
vowels, or the transmutability of others. Then imagine the Ameri. 
can hieroglyphics, in the lapse of ages, to become entirely forgotten ; 
the people who wrote the legends — those who could speak or read 
English — entirely obliterated from the face of the earth ; their Ian- 
guage dead ; the Capitol a shapeless pile of ruins ! 

Suppose, that another and a distinct race of men, from another 
hemisphere, after two thousand years, while possessing mere vague 
traditions of ancient American glory — uncertain as to the epoch of 
these mutilated sculptures — mystified as to the very language in 
which they were written — amid the general hue and cry that " hiero- 
glyphics are all nonsense " — endeavored to unravel their mysterious 
subjects ! 

Grant that the task would be in nature herculean — that its even- 
tual success would appear chimerical. Yet even this would not be 
so difficult, as to decipher a crumbling fragment of an Act of Con- 
gress written in a tachygraphic, or abridged form of these identical 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



IT 



American hieroglyphics, on a fragile papyrus, exhumed from the 
ruins of the once-towering Capitol ! 

You can scarcely conceive such a contingency possible as a trans- 
lation of all these things ? and yet, such was precisely the position of 
Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1802, when the " Rosetta Stone " arrived in 
Europe ! such was the state of hierology when Young, in 1819, struck 
the first sparks from the flinty basalt, whereon were engraven two 
unknown inscriptions ! such was the " darkness of Egypt," when 
Champollion's meteoric flashes illumined the archaeological hemi- 
sphere ! 

When we, in 1843, calmly reflect on the intellects and the souls it 
has required, to face and to overcome these obstacles, till every 
Egyptian legend can be understood, its purport defined, and the 
main sense of the most intricate papyrus clearly expounded, let us 
allow, that to the modern hierologists we are indebted for these 
glorious achievements. 

I again refer those interested in the early labors of the hieroglyphi- 
cal students, to Dr. Young's Article in the Encyclopedia Britan- 
nica, and to Champollion's " Precis des Hieroglyphes," for proofs 
of the discovery ; and to the " Grammaire Egyptienne," as an in- 
controvertible monument of unqualified success. My part is simply 
to give the summary of the language as it is now understood. 

Complicated as, owing to our ignorance, the hieroglyphical writing 
of Egypt now appears to us, it was (together with the Hieratic char- 
acter, and, in later times, the Demotic,) in constant, general, and 
popular use, among all classes, all persons, in the Valley of the Nile ; 
and the illusion under which we have labored for ages, excited by 
the mysterious appearance and still-rumored unintelligibility of the 
writings themselves, and misled by the puerile misinformation of 
Greek writers, that the arts of reading and writing were withheld by 
the priests from the lower classes, is dispelled by a glance at the 
monuments. The fact is, as the Greek and Roman writers did not 
understand either the Egyptian tongue, or the Egyptian writings, they 
represented those subjects which they were too volatile, or self-defi- 
cient to inquire about themselves, to be impenetrable mysteries. We, 
however, have indisputable evidences, that reading and writing 
were in Ancient Egypt (in days coeval with the Pyramids) as pub- 
licly known, and in as popular use, without respect to caste, to 
wealth, or poverty, as in many Christian and not-uncivilized coun- 
tries, at the present day. Its graphical signs were termed, by the 
Greeks, hieroglyphics, meaning literally " Sacred sculptured char- 
acters." 

Plato and Plutarch both affirm, that the writing invented by the 
1st. Thoth, whom we have called the antediluvian Hermes, differed 
from that, which, according to my view, was rediscovered by Thoth 
the 2nd., whom we have termed the postdiluvian Hermes. It 
is the writing of this second Thoth, which, under the name of 
hieroglyphics, has come down to our day, on Nilotic monuments, 
from the remotest period since the colonization of Egypt by the sons 
of Mizraim ; and which was in current use, in ages coeval with the 
Pyramids, even among the stone-masons, and the farmers .' We 
now know, that the idea entertained till lately, even by some of the 
most eminent Egyptologists, " that no hieroglyphics are to be found 
in, or were known in the days of, the Pyramids," is an illusion, over- 
thrown by Col. Vyse's discoveries. This tradition of the difference 
existing between the writings of the two Thoths, comes in very 
appropriately, when we suppose, that the primitive method of writ- 
ing revealed to man prior to the Flood, had been lost by some nations, 
after the Dispersion ; and the rediscovery of the art in Egypt will 
account for some of the differences between the Nilotic system, and 
those primitive alphabets, or other forms of expressing ideas in use 
among early nations. 

After the rough draught of the foregoing ideas had been formed 
at Philadelphia, I had a gratifying opportunity of submitting them 
to a distinguished American philologist — H. Hale, Esq., late of the 
exploring Expedition ; and I was exceedingly proud to find, that, in 
the course of his varied inquiries into the causes of the diversity of 
human languages, and his comparisons of graphical systems, he had 
been led, by a different process of reasoning, to results, upon the 
probability of the rediscovery of a conjecturally lost alphabet, iden- 
tical with those, to which I was impelled by Egyptian facts and 
chronological limitations. My humble edifice acquires so much 
stability, from the opinions of a gentleman so laborious in philological 
pursuits, that, at my solicitation, he has favored me with the follow- 
ing letter : 

Philadelphia, 1st Nov. 1842. 

My Dear Sir : When you did me the favor, a few days ago, to read to me 
your very interesting lecture on the origin and language of the Egyptians, I 
expressed to you my gratification at finding that your views on the subject of 
the invention of writing, harmonized with some that had shortly hefore occur- 
red to myself. As we have arrived at the same result, by different roads, 
you have suggested that a statement by each, of the grounds on which this 
common result of our reasonings is based, might be of advantage in the way 
of mutual confirmation. Although, I conceive lhat your arguments as stated 
in your lecture, hardly stand in need of support, I readily comply with your 
suggestion, so far as relates to a summary of the philological facts, which 
seem to me to favor the views that you have taken. 

Three great nations, differing widely in language, physical characteristics 
and institution', appear almost at the same time, on the theatre of the world. 
Those who have made the most profound researches on these subjects, as- 
Btire us, dial the Mstories which may be called authentic, of the Chinese, the 
Hindoos, and the Egyptians, can be traced back, each on its separate ground, 



to within a few centuries of the period at which the best chronologisls fix 
the date of the Flood. Now, it is remarkable, that, at the very commencement 
of their annals we find each of these nations in possession of a system of 
writing so far perfected, that we do not hear of any improvement made by 
either in after ages. From their very nature it is indubitable, that they are 
of domestic and therefore independent origin ; and the question arises as to 
the probability, that each of them should have been the fruit of pure and un- 
assisted invention. We have, on our own continent, the example of two na- 
tions, which had reached, without the aid of extraneous influences, a slate of 
civilization fully equal to lhat, in which the first dawn of history finds any 
of the great Asiatic nations. Now, of these two nations, the one farthest 
advanced in the arts, the Piruvian, had no system of writing whatever; the 
other, the Mexican, possessed a kind of mnemonics, in the shape of pictures, 
which served to remind those, who had been previously instructed in their 
meaning, of the events and facts, which they were designed to commemorate. 
These examples would not lead us to suppose, that the invention of written 
characters, representing all the words or elementary sounds of a language, 
was a necessary or even a likely accompaniment of a nation's advance in 
civilization. 

In reading, not long ago, Mr. Rockwell's account of his voyage in the Medi- 
terranean and to Liberia, I was struck with his remark, that an intelligent 
man, of the Greybo tribe of Africans, near the colony, had invented a com- 
plete syllabic alphabet of his own language, in consequence of hearing, that 
foreign nations possessed some such means of imprinting their words on pa- 
per. Mr. R. also observes, that it was a similar suggestion, which led the 
famous Cherokee Cadmus, Sequoyah, to the invention of his alphabet. From 
these facts, the influence may be fairly deduced, that though the idea of 
written characters is not likely to occur of itself, to an uninstructed mind ; 
yet, when once suggested, it may easily be followed out to the completion of 
a system, perfectly adequate to the wants of a language, and unsusceptible 
of future improvement. 

To apply these inferences to the cases in question ; let us suppose (as we 
have reason to believe) that the Antediluvians possessed some mode of pre- 
serving facts and occurrences by written symbols. It may have been a kind 
of picture writing, like the Mexican, of mere human invention ; or, it may 
have been, as many have thought, a divinely revealed alphabetic writing. In 
the dispersion of families, and diversion of tongues, which must, on any amy 
every hypothesis, have taken place soon after the deluge, the written char 
acter was probably lost ; or, ifretained by any, it would only be in that family 
with the genius of whose language it happened to agree : all the rest would b» 
as unenlightened on this point, as were the Aztec tribes when they first 
spread themselves on the plains of Mexico; with the exception, that they 
would, in all probability, have preserved the tradition of the former existence 
of written characters ; and this tradition it would be, which, acting as a sug- 
gestion and an incitement on the mind of some man of superior intelligence, 
among a people sufficiently advanced to feel the need of such an art, would 
lead, first to the idea, and then to the construction of a system of writing. 
And this system, as thus constructed, would, of necessity, be one exactly 
adapted to the character of the language for which it was formed. Such i« 
said to be the syllabic alphabets of the Greybo and Cherokee sages. Such, 
it is well known, are the lerigraphic system of the Chinese (so termed by 
Mr. Duponceau, from the fact that each word in the language is represented 
by a distinct character) and the alphabetic system of the Sanscrit, which 
bears some tokens of having been originally formed on a syllabic basis. 
Able scholars have doubted, whether, with all the lights of experience and 
comparison, which we, in modern times, enjoy, any written characters could 
be proposed, by which the peculiar methods which these two languages have 
employed fir ages, might with advantage be replaced. How far this assertion 
will apply to the ancient Egyptians ; and whether that language really gained, 
by the substitution of the Coptic alphabet for ihe old hieroglyphics, you are 
yourself the best judge. And, in considering this question, we might partic- 
ularly refer to the remarkable power, inherent in the ancient system, of ex- 
pressing by one set of characters, all the various dialects spoken in the 
Nilotic valley. 

I shall be happy, if these few and hasty suggestions shall be esteemed by 
you of any value, in confirming the views to which you have been previously 
led by the study of the ancient monuments of that most interesting region. 
Believe me, my dear sir, with much respect, 

Very sincerely yours, 
Geo. R. Gliddon, Esq. H. HALE. 



Greek and Roman writers (according to Champollion Figeac, 
Plato, Tacitus, Pliny, Plutarch, Diodorus and Varro, with others,) 
ascribe to Egypt the honor of inventing alphabetical writing — an 
honor, which earlier writers, whose works are no longer extant, and 
the voice of oral tradition, had consecrated from time immemorial 
hefore them. Modern criticism has recognized, by the study of the 
Monuments, that, so far as the relative antiquity of the art in Egypt, 
compared with any other nations is concerned, this attribution to 
Egypt is correct and indisputable ; while there are not a few alpha- 
bets, that may be traced in origin to early intercourse with the Valley 
of the Nile, the priority in civilization of whose inhabitants is now 
irrevocably determined. 

Early Grecian tradition ascribed to Cadmus, son of Agenor, king 
of Phoenicia, the introduction of alphabetic letters into the Pelopon- 
nesus. Cadmus appears to have lived in the seventh generation be. 
fore the Trojan war; which event belongs to the twelfth century 
before Christ, and consequently the epoch of Cadmus dates about 
1500 B. C, which, in Egyptian annals, is comparatively a modern 
date, being contemporary with the middle of the 18th dynasty. 
This Cadmus introduced into Greece 16 primitive letters — a phonetic 
alphabet, consisting of the first sixteen primitive vocal articulations — 
KvpioXoyiKri 6ta to>v rpoiroiv rToix t ' iav — translated by Letronne, " Kyrio- 
logic, according to the first alphabetic or phonetic letters" — or "serv. 
ing perfectly to denote objects by alphabetic signs." 

These first alphabetic signs were then attributed to Hermes, who 
is our Egyptian Thoth the second ! and were called, by the Greeks, 
"Phoenician letters." To the primitive sixteen letters, Pahunedes 
added four ; and subsequently four others were supplied by Simoni. 
des; thus completing the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet. The 16 
Cadmean letters were, A, B, V, A, E, F, I, K, A, M, N, O, II, P, S, 



18 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



T, some of which singularly correspond in names to those of the 
Semitic families of Hebrew, Samaritan, and other, to the parental 
Phoenician, cognate tribes ; thus evincing, that the origin of the Cad- 
mean alphabet is not Grecian, but Eastern : and, inasmuch as its 
affinities are all Asiatic it may be termed " Phoenico-Grecian." If, 
therefore, we show, that its parental source derives its origin from an 
Egyptian hieroglyphic, as has been demonstrated by Dr. Lamb, in 
respect to the Hebrew letters, it will prove how much Greece is in- 
debted to Egypt for the learning of her worthies. 

It is a law of phonetic hieroglyphics, that the picture of a physical 
object shall give the sign of the sound, with which its name begins 
in the Egyptian tongue. Thus, a lion, whose Egyptian name was 
" Labo," stood for the letter L, in hieroglyphics ; as it might stand, 
in our language, to represent the initial letter of the designatory title 
of that animal, whose name with us is lion. Now, the same prin- 
ciple is distinctly discernible in the Hebrew, Arabic, Samaritan, 
Phoenician, and other Semitic tongues ! The ancient Hebrew letter 
Li — or L — was the initial letter of their name for lion — " Labi ;" 
while, in shape, it is only an abbreviation of the figure of a recum- 
bent lion, a pure Egyptian hieroglyph. The B, in Hebrew, is the 
initial letter of the word <; Beth," meaning " a house" — which is its 
name ; and there is even a resemblance to be traced between the 
form of the letter " Beth," and the outline of an oriental house with 
a flat roof ! I will exemplify this fact by the name of the letter — 
AD — in the ancient Hebrew — which, besides being probably the 
first articulate sound uttered by Adam, signifies " a Man," as also 
" red earth," out of which man was moulded by the divine "Potter" 
— see Isaiah, lxiv., 8. The transitions are herein made clear. 



a c 

e ^ 

a "m 

a *" 



Sffi M 



s 



< 



< 



J3 — 

>• a 




'&%M-riM 



The letter A in Hebrew, meaning man, is thus traced to its Egyp- 
tian parent. The same holds good with the entire Hebrew alphabet, 
but is peculiarly evident in their letters G, N, P, R and T ; all can 
be respectively traced to the initial letters of objects, whose names 
in sound corresponded to the initial value of the letters, as the form 
of the letters still preserves a resemblance to the pictorial hiero- 
glyphic of the objects whence they are derived. Nor does it seem 
improbable that Moses, who was "learned in all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians," should have introduced into the Hebrew writings some 
of those forms and ideas, he had necessarily contracted in regard to 
this, and other subjects, during his education at Heliopolis. 

It is likewise a curious chronological coincidence, that the 15th 
century B. C, witnessed the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, 
and their organization into an orderly community by Moses — the in- 
troduction of the present Hebrew alphabet, in lieu of the previous 
character, whatever that was — the importation of the primitive 
alphabet from Phoenicia (at that period a province tributary to the 
Pharaohs, and overrun by their armies) into Greece, by Cadmus, and 
the foundation of Boeotian Thebes, with its oriental mysteries and 
oracles — the emigration of Danaus, who was perhaps the brother of 
our Ramses 4th : (Sefhos-iEgyptus,) and who founded the kingdom of 
the Danai, at Argos, where colossal ruins of the Egypto-Pelasgic period 
again point to their Nilotic sources — and, with less historical cer- 
tainty, but with some probability, may we also trace the foundation 
of Athens itself to an Egyptian colony, led by Cecrops from Sais, 
within half a century of the preceding events, that so strongly mark 
the period of the 15th century B. C. ; the Augustan age of Pharaonic 
renown. 

Palamedes, king of Euboea, gave to the Greeks 4 additional letters, 
0, S, $, X, to supply deficiencies in the Cadmean alphabet ; and 
Simonides subsequently furnished the 4 other signs, Z, H, '"P, £2, 
which completed the 24 letters of the ancient Greek alphabet. 

Now, the distinct articulations of phonetic hieroglyphics may be 
resolved into 16 sounds, represented by 16 Egyptian letters (with 
their homophones) which are identical, in value, with the 16 primi- 
tive Cadmean characters! and these 16 primitive signs represent the 
16 distinct simple or elementary sounds of the human voice ; because, 
all the other alphabetic sounds are more or less compound, and are 
reducible into their respective primitive elements ! 

Thus the fact, that the Greek and Phoenician alphabets contained, 
at first, only 16 distinct letters, is not only established by analogy 
and historical testimony, but is comformable to nature itself. 

The Greeks and other nations, completed the powers of their 
alphabets, by adding other letters to represent compound sounds. 
The Egyptians, without extending their phonetic system, in number 



of letters, appear to have arrived at the same result, by giving to 
each original sign a double or a triple power, as for instance : 
Arabic. 



I 



in hieroglyphics stands in Arabic and in Coptic, 



^ ___ T» Khei — our Kh ' 

G -X ffiHmI 



Shei — our Sh 



3 distinct sounds. 



J 



the first of which we have not the power of expressing, but conven. 
tionally, in our letters ; nor can many Europeans pronounce it dis- 
tinctly. It exists in Arabic — as in " Khtiss " lettuce — or " Khitm " 
a seal ; distinct from H, as in " Haris," a guard — or " Halee," my soul. 
And when, in Roman times, the hieroglyphic, hieratic and de. 
motic forms of writing were abolished ; it was found necessary to 
add to the 24 Greek letters, 7 others, purely Egyptian, to enable the 
denizens of Egypt to represent in writing the sounds of their tongue, 
and thus the present Coptic alphabet of 31 letters was formed. The 
seven Egyptian letters of the Coptic alphabet, are taken from the 
demotic texts ; viz. 



w 



— Shei — equivalent to our Sh 



— Fei 



Ph 



r* —Khti 


a 


it 


Kh 


O —Hori 


tt 


tt 


H 


/\ — Sjansja 


tt 


tt 


Sj 


O — Sseema 


tt 


tt 


Ss 



J? —Dei " " T 

I regret, that my limits do not permit my going further into the 
interesting subject of the ancient use and modes of writing. Enough, 
has been said to show, that early analogies point to the valley of the 
Nile, as the cradle, if not the birthplace, of this, no less than of all 
other arts. 

A small, though excellent work,* published in 1841 in London, 
(from which I have gleaned several points of the present discourse, 
and in the next chapter have extracted some ancient texts,) seems to 
infer, that alphabetic signs were exclusively preserved by the descend, 
ants of Shem, among other advantages accruing to them from Noah's 
prophetic blessing ; and then expatiates upon the " unhappy sons f 
Mizraim, the son of Ham," who lost their primitive language, ana 
with it the alphabet.' 

This may be a mode of speaking, but it is inconsistent with the 
Bible, and is utterly overthrown by history ; for, if these unhappy 
descendants of -Ham were under a curse, how was it, if Ham be the 
parent of the Egyptians, that these unfortunate people were the most 
civilized of antiquity ? how was it, that this accursed race enjoyed, 
for 2500 years, the fairest portion of the earth ? how came it that 
these unhappy people held the descendants of Shem in bondage, or 
in tribute, during 1000 years before Cambyse3, B. C. 525 ? 

This is another popular fallacy. The curse was not on Ham. It 
passed over him, and fell upon Canaan. But, as I shall hereinafter 
demonstrate, there was no ban on the Mizraimites, or Egyptians, till 
after times. 

CHAPTER THIRD. 

The reader will not forget, that Oriental languages of ancient days, 
in sound, as well as in character, are not far removed from the mod. 
em ; although, to an uninitiated ear, their intonations and articula- 
tions may appear extravagant or harsh. 

We have all of us seen vocabularies, wherein, by means of our 
alphabetic letters, the words of eastern languages are presented to 
our eye, but never to our ear. No dependence can be placed on the 
accuracy of any one of them, however, unless we are previously 
assured of the knowledge of the European writer ; who in most 
cases is lamentably deficient. " Guide Books," for travellers to the 
Levant, are for sale everywhere ; yet, it is curious to test the accu- 
racy of the so-called Arabic vocabularies attached to some of them. 
"Usborne's Guide to Egypt," London, 1840; price 9 shillings ster- 
ling ; among its other absurdities, contains one of these puerile and 
valueless " word-books." But, for " true Corinthian brass," com. 



* The "Antiquities of Egypt," 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1841, published by the Religious 
Tract Society " This, as well as the " Illustrations of the Bible from the Monument* 
or Egypt," by the Rev. Dr. W. C. Taylor, Londra 1S38-1 vol. 12ino., I warmly recom 
mend to the reader's perusal. 



ANCIENT EGVPT. 



19 



mend me to that pompous "English and Arabic (?) vocabulary," 
obtainable at the enormous price of 12 shillings, in a quarto, styled 
" Hand-book to India and Egypt," London, 1841 ; wherein, not only 
are all the exploded errors, regarding Egyptian subjects, perpetuated 
with marvellous fidelity; but, under the name of Arabic, is palmed 
off an aggregation of trash, one third of which is obsolete Arabic, 
incorrectly spelled ; another third may be Hindostanee, Bengalee, or 
other Indian idiom ; and the remainder is literally gibberish. 

The only " Arabic and English" vocabulary, that can be scrupu- 
lously relied on, is the one appended to Sir J. G. Wilkinson's " Topo- 
graphy of Thebes," 1835 ; an invaluable work, now out of print. 

Unless we know, by ear, the foreign sounds expressed by our con- 
ventional combinations of letters, it is vain to think of tracing correct 
philological affinities. A most amusing catalogue could be made, 
in selections from modern European literature, of the ludicrous fail- 
ures of travellers in Arabic alone. Errors are perfectly excusable in 
those who make no pretensions ; but, for a man to have the puerile 
vanity to write in English the words of an Eastern language, when, 
by so doing, he proves that he knows nothing about it, is suicidal to 
say the least, while his folly misleads his successors ; whence, to- 
gether with carelessness of observation, in great measure, is deri- 
ved that general misinformation about Egypt, ancient and modern, 
which prevails everywhere at the present day. 

In our alphabet, we have not the power to express a • " Kh," 
or a * "Gh," still less an "Ain," nor can many Eur^^" opeans 
eve ^ r acquire their true pronunciation. \^_) 

^"■ii - Lane, the most eminent Arabic savan of the day, and the 
estimable author of the " Modern Egyptians" (the most learned and 
accurate of all works on the present inhabitants of Cairo and of 
Egypt in general) has been the first to establish a system whereby 
Arabic can be written in our letters ; but, unless the reader hears 
the sound, he can never acquire its phonetic value. Our alphabet 
will not express all the Oriental intonations ; nor can their alphabets 
express all of ours. 

It is much the same in music. We cannot approach Arabian 
intonations, whether in instrumental, or vocal melody ; and, be it 
observed, unless a man has an ear for music, he can no more learn, 
or duly perceive the niceties of foreign, and particularly of Eastern 
languages, than he could sing correctly without a voice. 

I have said, that we cannot express in our letters many Oriental 
articulations, without a conventional system ; as kh for " Khey ;" 
and gh for " Ghain ;" the sound to be conveyed by mouth. No 
combination of ours can express the " ll" of that extraordinary lan- 
guage, discovered as still extant in Hadramaut, by the profound 
Orientalist, Mons. F. Fresnel, French Consul at Djedda ; which, 
while it somewhat resembles the " ll" of the Welsh, can be articu- 
lated only on the right side of the mouth — being something between 
" llw ;" a whistle, and a sriT ! 

I will endeavor to illustrate, how impossible it is for Orientals to 
express our European intonations by their letters. 

An English friend of mine, in the Levant, who is a profound Turk- 
ish scholar, had two native Ottoman secretaries. Being desirous of 
testing the capabilities of the Turkish character, for the rendering of 
an English phrase, he sent one of them out of his bureau one morn- 
ing ; and dictating to the other the following line, desired him to 
write it in his national letters, so as to produce the English sound, as 
correctly as possible. The sentence was, 

" Drag the swindling scoundrel to the pump.' 



This digression will serve to show how difficult it is, in European 
or Eastern alphabets, to express each other's respective languages ; 
and to preface the remark, that we know not the precise articulations 
of the ancient Coptic, or Egyptian tongue, as we are ignorant of the 
sound; for the speakers, with the language, perished in by-gone ages. 

I now proceed to the general principles of the Ancient Egyptian 
Language, as determined by the best hicroglyphical authorities up to 
the close of 1841. I shall pass rapidly over the subjects, explaining 
each " with as much brevity as is consistent with perspicuity." 
It would be tedious, as before stated, to go back to the doubts and 
disputes of 1825 ; and my object is to give a generally-correct, rather 
than a detailed view of Egyptian studies at the present day. The 
difficulty of the task assumed lies in the appropriate condensation ; 
and if this particular chapter be found less amusing to the general 
reader than the others, it will not be the less instructive ; while its 
insertion is absolutely indispensable to the clear apprehension of the 
sequel. In the words of Champollion — " the subject banishes all 
ornament : in the absence of this advantage, which would doubtless 
contribute to sustain your attention, I would invoke the high im. 
portance of our inquiries," no less than the reader's indulgent pa- 
tience. 



The Language of the ancient Egyptians is the ancient Coptic, 
prior to the introduction of foreign engraftments ; which may have 
been imported in part, as early as Psameticus the 1st, about B. C. 
650. Before that time, it was an autocthon, or indigenous tongue ; 
and the same idioms were orally in use from the unnumbered ages 
anterior to the pyramids, down to the above-named monarch of the 
26th Saitic dynasty. It ceased to be orally preserved among the 
Copts, the present mongrel descendants of a high-caste ancestry, 
about a hundred years ago. They still read it, with Arabic trans, 
lations in the context, in the churches of the Coptic community in 
Egypt. 

In construction, it is monosyllabic in all its primitive words. Its 
polysyllabic words are compounded of one or more linguistical roots ; 
and these can generally be resolved into distinct monosyllables. Its 
syntax is in the logical order of the French language. It contains a 
certain number of Semitic words, due to early intercourse with 
Arabian nations, as well as to its primitive Asiatic origin.* 

Dr. Leipsius, in his "Paleographia," 1834, established very curious 
relations between Sanscrit and Hebrew, such as to leave no doubt 
of the existence of a common though undeveloped germ in both. 
But still more valuable were the results of this erudite German eth. 
nologist in Coptic ; for, in his letter to the Chevr. Baron Bunsen, Jan. 
1835, he established, that the ancient Coptic is no longer placed in 
linguistical solitude ; but that it enters into the vast circumference of 
Semitic and Indo-Germanic languages ; and that it is linked with 
each by points of actual contact, grounded on the essential structure 
and most necessary forms of all three. He considers that, in the 
numerals especially, so strong a similarity exists between the Indo- 
Germanic and Semitic languages with the more ancient Egyptian 
system, that he deems the numeral figures of the Egyptians to have 
been originally transported from Egypt to India, and thence, being 
carried into Arabia by early commercial intercourse, were by the 
Arabs transmitted to us, and as such are by us termed Arabic ; al. 
though, by the Arabs this system of numeration is still called Hindee, 
Indian. 



&&^biA &£>»}&)£* 



o 



Like all primitive tongues, the Egyptian proceeded by 
imitation ; or by giving a sound in imitation of the ob- 
ject, or idea, intended. Thus, the name of an 



The man wrote it and having heard the sound, read it correctly in 
English. 

He was then sent out of the room ; and the other secretary who 
had not heard the sound, was summoned, and desired to read it. 
This he did freely, 

" DlREK ZEE ASEVINEDELINK AsEKONEDEREL TEV ZEE PoMEP !" 

and this was the nearest approximation to the English that the 
Turkish alphabet would admit of. 

" In sober sadness," I can assure the reader, that it is precisely as 
ludicrous to an Eastern ear, to hear a foreigner read what is called 
Arabic, from an " English and Arabic vocabulary" written with our 
alphabet. 

Some curious exemplifications of the real mode of sounding some 
ancient Greek articulations, may be afforded by hieroglyphical com- 
parisons, which would show that, in sound, the modern language as 
spoken at this day has not varied much from the ancient. And, 
what can be more uncouth to hellenic auricular nerves, than to hear 
an English Demosthenes begin his oration, with " Oi andres Athc- 
naioi!" Yemen of Athens'. Ortohear poor Homer's hexameter 
twisted into the sentence, (so often quoted to exemplify the propriety 
of Greek linguistical adaptations!) " Polu floisboio thaldsces.'' 

Equally absurd is the English mode of reading Latin ; and equally 
unnatural to an Italian ear are our intonations of this language, when 
in lieu of the open, manly, and sonorous cadences of " Pater noster, 
qui cs in ccclo," we shut our teeth, and pronounce it," " Payta nosta 
qui eez in seelo ." 



was 



Ass 

Lion 

Cow 

Frog 

Cat 

Pig 

Hoopoo 



Serpent" 



Yd, from his bray ; 

Mooee, from his roar; 

E'he, from her low ; 

Croor, from his croak; 

Chaoo, from her mew ; 

Eurr, from his grunt ; 

Petepep, from its peculiar cry ; Arabice, " Hed- 

hed," (like our Whip-poor-Will;) 
Hoff, from its hiss. 
Mr." Lane's exquisite translation of the "Thousand and one 
Nights," gives some beautiful instances, in Arabic, of the words 
attributed to the cries of birds. As, the " Umree Heg&zee," or ^ Ara- 
bian turtle dove, in its sweet coo, repeats " Yii kerecm, yh Allah," 
O most merciful God ! . . 

In ancient Coptic, the same echoing principle is recognizable in 
verbs; thus, 

Sensen, to sound ; 
THornTHEPii, to spit ; 
Owodjwedj, to masticate ; 



* While delivering my first course of Lectures at Boston, a circumstance occurred in 
regard to the dispersion of Languages, which I deem worth mentioning, as it may 
serve for a clue in philological connections. 1 was explaining the picto. la 
taiownasthatof ti,e " Jrfcftmate*," and mentioned that the hiero I pi 
A ' fethc Coptic toli, preserved in Egypt, by the Arabs, in then- name<oo*. After 

was finished, agentleman, whosaid he had resided many yeai 

wich Islands, stepped up and tefi me. that in Polynesia the native name for tricks is 

lobe. 



20 



ANCIENT EGVPT. 



Teltel, to let water fall drop by drop. The same word is still 

used in Arabic. 
Kradjkradj, to grind one's teeth. 
Rodjredj, to rub. 
Omk, to swallow; so that, in swallowing, all nations speak Coptic .' 

Also by assimilation, as 

BRIDJ, lightning. 

Law, to rejoice ; as in the Arab song of " Doos'-ya-ZeUee." 
See Modern Egyptians, Vol. II. p. 83. 

Abstract ideas were expressed often by compounded roots ; as for 
example, the word " Het," heart, became 

Het-chem, little heart, i. e. timorous. 

Hahjhi-Het, slow heart, " patient. 

Ssaci.Het, high heart, " proud. 

Het-nasht, hard heart, " inclement. 

Ouom-Het, eating one's heart, " repenting. 

Thot-Het, mixing one's heart, " persuasive. 

Meh-Het, filling one's heart, " satiating. 

Although possessed of three colloquial dialects, the writing chosen 
to express the language (being adapted to all these verbal inflec- 
tions) is another evidence of the laborious intelligence that presided 
over every Egyptian institution. It was indeed a country of wisdom, 
rule, and systematic order, wherein nothing was left to chance. 

The system of writing may be divided into primitive and second- 
ary — the one being purely hieroglyphical, with its two derivatives, 
which wjs the most ancient method — the other the modern, or the 
Coptic. It is only of the former we are treating. 

The learned Leipsius, in the " Annals of Archaeological Corres- 
pondence" — Rome, 1837 : maintains that the Egyptians had two 
colloquial dialects in use, which were very distinct — 

1st — the upa yXuiaaa, or upo SiaXtxroa, which is the classical or 
sacerdotal — 

2d — the Koim iidXcKToa, which is the popular dialect. 

The sacred, or hieroglyphical writing, as well as the hieratic, of all 
ages, presents to our view the sacerdotal or classical dialect ; but the 
demotic, or popular writing, as well as the Coptic literature, presents 
the popular dialect. 

This is the main reason why the modern Coptic, which preserves 
the ancient popular dialect, will not always translate words written 
in the classical idiom, and in the anterior hieroglyphic and hieratic 
character. 

Indeed, St. Clement, of Alexandria, A. D. 194, is the only 

one* of the early Greek writers, who deigned to take notice of 



Hoadotus and Diodorus picked up a few rumors of the mode of writing, misunder- 
standing!* as usual 



Egyptian writings ; and the good sense of his short description con- 
cerning them is confirmed by modern research. In his " Stromates" 
he says, 

" Those who, among the Egyptians, receive instruction, learn first 
that species of Egyptian writing which is termed epistolographic — 
i. e. our demotic ; they next learn the hieratic, or sacerdotal ; and 
lastly, the hieroglyphic, or sacred." 

So that an Egyptian, in St. Clement's day, might have been able to 
read and write the demotic, without its necessarily following that he 
should be versed in the other two ; in the same manner, that Orientals 
may be familiar with the Sulus or Reihani characters of the Turkish, 
without being able to write, or even read, a document written in the 
Divani or Kyrma styles. This observation, however, will better apply 
to the Egyptian scribes, in the days succeeding " Haphre" — ("Ap- 
ries" — Pharaoh Hophra, of Jeremiah xxvii. to xliv. : 2nd Kings xx. : 
and 2nd Chronicles xxxvi. : whose name, in hieroglyphics, is also 
" Remesto" — the abominable Pharaoh) — B.C. 569 : when the demotic 
writing may have been first introduced ; because, before that period, 
the graphical styles appear to have been limited to the hieratic and 
the hieroglyphic, until the eighteenth dynasty, or B. C. 1800 — pre- 
viously to which time, it is uncertain if the hieratic existed ; so far as 
I, who am now far away from the vortex of discovery, have been 
able to learn. Monsieur E. Prisse, however, a learned hieroglyphi- 
cal pioneer, informs me, in a recent private letter, that he has found 
a hieratic papyrus of a new king of the 1st. Memphite dynasty! 
If the king can be clearly identified, which I confess my present 
inability to comprehend, this fact will carry back hieratic writing, 
no less than chronology, unnumbered centuries before the Memphite 
Pyramids ! Rumors have since reached me that Dr. Leipsius' pre- 
sent pyramidal researches will confirm Manetho's early arrangement, 
and produce a vast accession of interesting historical facts, concern, 
ing the regal builders of these mausolea, as well as their house- 
holds. 

The ancient writing of the Egyptians was therefore divided into 
three distinct classes — viz : the hieroglyphic or " sacred sculptured 
characters," which was the original, and is the monumental method — ■ 
the hieratic or " sacerdotal," which is an abbreviative method, used 
by the scribes and priests in literary pursuits, in current use prior to 
1500 B. C. ; and which, written from right to left, is a tachygraphy 
or shorthand of the preceding — and the demotic, styled in the 
Greek translation on the Rosetta Stone enchorial; which, coining 
probably into general use after the Persian conquest, B. C. 525, is a 
still more expeditious style of writing. It is written from right to 
left. The modern Coptic is, however, traced from left to right, as 
the Christianized Egyptians followed the Greeks in alphabet and 
graphical system. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



21 



, *!£. f ? 1 i owi,1 g u al P habet ^ fu ™ sh a general idea of the hiero- I bol j d t0 this taMe a c tic d habet ^ 

glypnreal homophones, as well as ol the phonetic value of each syrn | 

HIEROGLYPHIC ALPHABET. 



COPTIC ALPHABET. 


3^ L 


Alpha 


A 


B £ 


Vida 


B 


r t 


Gamme 


Gh 


x & 


Dalda 


D 


e e 


Ei 


E 


C z, 


Zida 


Z 


H fcf 


Hida 


Ee 


O -e 


Thida 


Th 


I r 


Iauda 


I 


K K 


Kabba 


K 


^ * 


Laula 


L 


U w. 


Mi 


M 


n: rt 


Ni 


N 


g e 


Exi 


X 


O o 








nTT 


Pi 


p 


p p 


Ro 


R 


C c 


Sima 


S 


T~r 


Dau 


D.T. 


T t 


Ue 


u.v 


$ 4 


Phi 


Ph 


X X 


Chi 


Hh 


tp y 


Epsi 


Ps 


W<*> 








m>y 


Shei 


Sh 


ci Cj 


Fei 


F 


*J> 


Khei 


Kh 


a a 


Hori 


h 


& K 


Sjansja 


Sj 


(T^ 


Ssima 


Ss 


± + 


Dei 


T 



A, E, I, O, U, - 



T, Th, D 



L, R 



M<! 



F, Ph, P, 



Sj, Ss 
PH, V, Uo 
Kh, Sh, X 

Sh 
Hh, H 






J.^.^-.lr.-V.li 1 *- !•*'• 






Vi.J.-.V.V.l.H^- 



■.jK>.A.^-ry. f .».+. 



\S * 



■•MimmaLZ UnElSBUl "V p* ^MHB 

• • • ^^* • 






•^•' '-t;i •/*•'*> : 



j 1 .J .% ,gp . tf.^. J 



^Ws- 



^.•g.ar./;^ .si.js 



*C«^ .<^ .€_**. 



* ^ • 









Of the hieratic and demotic I have made no study, but the sue- I British Museum, commemorating the campaigns of Ramses 3d — 
ceeding inscriptions will indicate their appearance. It is the first line Sesostris — and his victories over several Asiatic nations, far remote 
of a poem in the hieratic character, Irom a papyrus now in the | from Egypt. Its date may be about 1550 B. C. 



23 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



HIERATIC. 






TRANSLATION. 

"The wicked raoe of the country of Scythia * ** * with many king- 
doms * * * * the soldiers of the country of Iketo, of the country of Maono, 
of the country of Tom, of the country of Keshkosh, &c. 

It proceeds with the names of countries, the geography of which 
is unknown. 

DEMOTIC or ENCHORIAL. 






This is from a papyrus in the Museum of Turin. 

TRANSLATION. 

" In the 36th year, on the 18th of the month of Atliyr, of the reign of the 
sovereigns Ptolemy and Cleopatra his sister; the children of Ptolemy and 
Cleopatra, gods Epiphanes." 

This papyrus is a civil contract for the sale of the profits of the 
offerings in certain tombs. Even in Ptolemaic times, Egyptian law 
did not recognize as legal any documents not written in the native 
characters and language. It is of the last year of Philometor, about 
B. C. 146. 



Hieroglyphics, or monumental writing, are the primitive and 
sacred style ; the most ancient monuments and papyri being in this 
character. It is divided into two classes — the pure and the linear — 
the latter being s as is explained by the following instances, a reduc- 
tion of the former. 



Pure. Linear. 




A reed, phonetically, A. 






A jackal, symbolically, a Priest 



A goose, phonetically, S., Figuratively 
the bird goose — symbolically offspring. 

The pure class was always sculptured or painted, and, in general, 
both sculptured and painted were employed on public edifices. The 
linear was preferred in ordinary life and literature of the earlier 
periods. 

The figures of things chosen as hieroglyphics are ranged into the 
following sixteen categories. 

A — Celestial objects — as sun, moon, srars,&c. 
B — Man, of all ages, sexes and ranks, in all positions of the body. 
C — Parts of the human body — as an eye, hand, &c. 
D — Quadrupeds — domestic and savage — as a bull, giraffe, mon- 
key, &c. 
E — Birds of divers species — as a vulture, hawk, duck, ibis, owl, &c. 
F — Reptiles of various kinds — as a crocodile, frog, snake, &c. 
G — Fish, of a few varieties. 
H — Insects — as a beetle, scorpion, wasp, &c. 
I — Plants, flowers, and fruits. 



J — Articles of dress or costume — as helmets, collars, shoes, &c. 
K — Furniture, arms, and ensigns — as thrones, bows, sceptres, &c. 
L — Household utensils — as vases, bowls, knives, &c. 

M — Instruments relating to arts and trades — as a saw, 
, hatchet, blowpipe, &c. 

N — Edifices and buildings — as temples, obelisks, houses, 

boats, &c. 
— Various geometrical forms — as squares, ovals, angles, 

circles, segments, &c. 
P — Monstrous orfabulous Images — as a Hawk with a human 
head. Sphinx — a lion's body with a man's, a ram's, or 
hawk's head — men, with the heads of animals — and 
other unnatural combinations ; all conveying however, 
some metaphorical, allegorical, or mystical signification. 
The exact number of the hieroglyphical figures not being yet 
ascertained, the complete amount of varieties used by the Egyptians 
cannot be positively defined. Approximately, their number may be 
set down at 900, and time will develop a very few more. 

Sculptured hieroglyphics were executed in "Intaglio," in "Rilievo," 
or in " Intaglio rilevato." They were frequently painted, in minor 
structures, without being sculptured ; but were rarely sculptured on 
public monuments (save perhaps on obelisks) without being also 
painted. In writing they were sometimes colored or illuminated, 
but usually only in black or red. The colors given to each symbol 
were not arbitrary on the part of the artist, but were applied 
according to sys f ematic rules, more or less consistent with 
the nature of the object — thus, the Heavens were painted 
blue — the Earth red — Man as follows ; Egyptian males in red 
as the most honorable color — meaning symbolically, the " heat 
of fire," and the " male principle" — Egyptian females, in yel- 
low, symbolizing the " light of fire," and the "female principle" 
— Other nations were depicted as nearly as the artist could 
approach their true color — as Asiatics in various shades of flesh 
color ; Berbers in brown of divers hues — Negros in black. 

Quadrupeds, birds, insects, fishes, plants, in the colors most 
appropriate to their natural aspect. Woods, in yellow — cop- 
per, in green — edifices, in blue — and so on. To these rules 
there are some exceptions, not however, produced by caprice. 

Disposal of the hieroglyphics — in vertical column from top to 

bottom in horizontal lines. Read from left to right, or from right 

to left ; beginning from that direction toward which the heads of the 
animals are pointed. There are exceptions, I admit, but this is the 
general order. 

Different species of signs and symbols — in the hieroglyphic char- 
acter are thus classed : 
Mimic — or figurative. 
Tropic — or symbolic. 

Phonetic — or " signs of sound " — i. e. alphabetic. 
Each of these expressed ideas by diffent methods. 
Figuratively — viz: Kvpto\oyiK>i koto. Mtpigirii' — method explain- 
ing itself by imitation. 

These expressed precisely the object of which, with more or less 
fidelity of design, they presented the image to the eye — as a disk, 
for the sun ; a crescent, for the moon ; a crocodile, for that reptile. 

Symbolically — Subdivided into four principal methods, under the 
following rhetorical rules, viz : 

1st. By Synecdoche — the part placed for the whole — as the head of 
an ox, to designate an ox — the head of a goose, to represent a goose. 
2nd. By Metonymy — the cause for the effect ; the effect for the 
cause ; the instrument for the labor produced — as " a month" by a 
crescent, with its horns turned downward, to designate the end of a 
lunation : fire, by a column of smoke from a stove : writing, by the 
combination of emblems given in the preceding chapter. 

3rd. By Metaphor — as a mother, by a vulture, because this bird 
was said to nourish its young with its own blood : a king, by a bee, 
as this insect is subject to a monarchial government : a priest, by a 
jackal, to indicate his watchfulness over sacred things : a physician, 
by a species of duck, the name of which was cein, while the pho. 
netic name of a doctor was ceini — as, even in our day, a duck is an 
excellent hieroglyphic for medical empiricism, because its phonetic 
cry is " quack, quack." 

4th. By Enigma — thus, an ibis stood for the god Thoth Hermes, 
owino- to a supposed mystical connection between the bird and the 
deityl a branch of lotus, or other parts of this flower, indicated the 
Upper Region, or Upper Egypt — while a tuft of papyrus, symbolized 
the Lower Region, or Lower Egypt : a sphinx, (always male in 
Egypt) with a lion's body and a man's head, represented royalty — or 
intellectual power combined with physical strength. 

These ideographic signs abound in Egyptian legends ; but can be, 
and often are, expressed by alphabetic "homonymia" and syno- 
nymes. 

Phonetically — (from the Greek tyovri, sound.) These signs are let. 
ters expressive, not of ideas, but of sounds, like our A, B, C, 1). 
The'y are, by far, the most numerous emblems in hieroglyphic 
writing ; and are alphabetic, and not syllabic. 
The fundamental principle of the phonetic system consists, in rep. 
resenting a sound by the pictorial image of a physical object, of 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



23 



which the name, in the colloquial idiom of the Egyptians, had for 
■initial articulation, or beginning letter, the sound which this sign, or 
image, was intended to express — thus : 



I 

■jflL an Eagle, 

ftU a Field, 

^ a Cap, 



the tuft of a Reed, called Ake, stood for A. 



" Akhom, " A, 

« Koi, " K. 

« Klapht, " K. 

« Moolddj, " M. 



an Owl, 
a Mouth, 



" Ed, 



<•) a Beetle — scarabseus, 
an Egg, 
a Hand, 
a Lion, 

Water-tank, - 




Thore, 
Soohe, 
Tot, 
Ldbo, 

Sheei, 



R. 

TH. 

S. 
T. 
L. 

SH. 



In teaching little children our own alphabet, we often adopt a 
system precisely similar ; as, 

" A, was an Archer, 

B, was a Butcher, ■ 

C, was a Crier, 

D, was a Doctor, 

or otherwise, 

" A, was an Apple-pie ; 

B, bit it ; 

C, cried for it ; 

D, danced for it ; 

E, eyed it." 

The copiousness of this principle, in the variety of words com- 
mencing with the same initial, permitted to the scribe a choice of 
"homophones," or " similars in sound," to express the same letter ; 
thus, the letter R could be expressed by a mouth, ro ; or by a pome- 
granate flower, romdn ; or by a tear, rime : T by a hand, tot; by a 
wing, tenh ; or by a hoopoo, tepeep : S by an egg, soohe ; or by a 
goose, sar; and so on; as I have exemplified in the word America. 

The number of homophones allowed to each letter was, after all, 
not very considerable ; nor was their choice, in the Pharaonic period, 
dependent on individual caprice. In later times, the degradation of 
art in Egypt, by the Ptolemies and Romans, corrupted the simplicity 
of pristine orthography, by the addition of signs unknown before ; 
and the scribe sought, by the profusion of his fantastic homophones, 
to disguise his ignorance and his inability to equal his glorious pre- 
cedents. 

Yet, in the wise laws which regulated his primeval art, the scribe 
of ancient days had an abundant selection at his disposal, not only 
cf varied phonetic signs, symbolically expressive of meanings corres- 
ponding- to the dignity of his theme, but adapted to horizontal or 
rerfr'caZinscriptions. Forinstance ; the Coptic word CSL&G' sems > 
could be written as follows : 

In vertical columns. 

— »»— r s -*- 






M 
S 



In horizontal lines. 



MS 
\ S 



MS 
S 



SMS 



SMS 



or 



r£r 1 s 

m 



SM 



As in the Hebrew, Phoenician, Arabic, and other Semitic lan- 
guages, the vowels in ancient Coptic were vague, and habitually 
omitted. The consonants indicated the word ; as, at the present 
day, is customary in writing short-hand. In this manner, Domitia- 
nos became Dmtns ; Berenice is written BrnJc ; Philifpos is some- 
times Pheeolecoupos, and, in some cases, Pips. 

One great advantage accrued from this power of vocalic suppres- 



sion, and the admissible traasmutation of L for R ; because thereby 
the differences of dialects in speech disappeared from the graphical 
texts. There were three colloquial idioms of the same language 
among the denizens of the Nile in Coptic times ; and we may infer 
that it was the same in ancient days ; especially now, that Dr. Mor- 
ton's triple classification of Ancient Egyptian Crania, indicates the 
primitive existence of three varieties of the Caucasian in Egypt. 
Among the Fellahs of the present day, three idioms of Arabic are, 
to a practised ear, discernible ; the Saeedee, or Upper Egyptian pro. 
vincialisms ; the Ghdrbee, or Western ; and the Sherkdwee, or East, 
em, referrible to the lower provinces. It was anciently somewhat 
the same ; for, 

in Lower Egypt, the people spoke the Memphitic, 1 

" Bashmuric, > dialects. 



Middle 
Upper 



Sahidic, J 



But, by the suppression of the vowels, and the transmutability of cer- 
tain consonants, the same combination of hieroglyphics could be 
vocally enunciated, by each provincial reader, according to his own 
peculiar idiom. The verb ^flflftjjy ^ Kel, to fold; might be read 
kal, kel, kol, or kul ; or ka r, ker, kor, or kur. 

It must be observed, lli »' CL ~^ when the introduction of 

Christianity caused the hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic charac- 
ters to be abandoned, (as savoring too much of heathenism for the 
delicate fingers of those, in whose eyes every legend was an inven. 
tion of the foul fiend, simply because they were too stultified to com. 
prehend, too fanatical to inquire) the Greco-Coptic alphabet was 
substituted in lieu of the ancient system ; but the language, beyond a 
few hellenic engraftments, and a few idioms introduced by Jews, 
Romans and Arabs, remained nearly the same, till the invasion of 
Aamer-ebn-el-As, and the establishment of the Saracenic Caliphate 
in A. D. 540. Arabic gradually superseded it ; and I was told, that 
the last speaker of Coptic died some seventy years ago. 

The process adopted by modern hierologists, in translating ancient 
Egyptian legends, is to transpose the hieroglyphics, according to 
their corresponding values in Coptic letters ; the roots are then in 
general traceable in Coptic lexicons ; but it requires vast erudition, 
intense study, and long practice, to become a translator. In ancient 
days, a hieroglyphical text could be read as currently, as, in our day, 
a page can be read in the Chinese language, or a treatise on Algebra 
in any of our tongues ; both of which, like an Egyptian legend, offer 
a continual intermixture of phonetic and ideographical signs. 

The three component principles of the sacred writing — that is to 
say ; the figurative, by imitation ; the symbolic, by assimilation ; and 
the phonetic, by alphabetical arrangement; were applied to all the 
parts of speech. A noun could be often written in each method 
alone, or expressed by the union of two ; and, not unfrequently, by 
an intermixture of all three, in the same word. It became necessary 
to indicate to the reader, through which of these principles he should 
understand a given combination of symbols. To effect this deside. 
ratum, the Egyptians introduced certain arbitrary signs, as determin- 
atives. For example : two eyes, drawn in an inscription, might 
mean A A ; or represent simply two eyes ; or imply the act of vision. 
In the first case, the writer merely drew two eyes ; in the second, he 
would add. one arbitrary sign ; and in the third, he used another 
arbitrary sign, to denote that he meant a verb, or the act of seeing. 

With these rules, and their application, the only way to gain an 
adequate acquaintance with the subject, is to consult Champollion'a 
grammar. I merely attempt to give a superficial view of its won- 
derful results. The following will explain some of these determin- 
atives of nouns. 



soten 




an ox, 



harir 






a serpent, 



an ox, 



a pig; 




CD 

3 


an anima 


.'s hide, 


a king, 


lafl 


a king, 




perfumes, 


r -a 

CP 

'§ 


ajar 




a flower, 


a> 


a flower, 





a serpent, 



and so on ; each determinative being appropriate to the nature of the 
object determined : the names of deities by the image of the pecu. 
liar god intended ; the proper names of men and women by the figure 
of a male or a female, as 

Pet-Hor-Phre — " he who belongs to 

. Horus and to Phre " (the sun) being the 

^hieroglyphical mode of spelling Potiphar, 



01 u maiu ui a icwti 



from a papyrus of Lord Mountnorris. 



24 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



Names of Egyptian localities were determined by the sign 
" consecrated bread," betokening civilization, 
111 



MAi 



ffl 



No. 1. 




Toph or Noph — 
the abode of Amun " 
Amunei. 



• Thebes. 



or by a square 
inclosure, 
meaning an 
edifice. 



Foreign countries were indicated by the sign B*ilt *W " Kah 
country; generally, however, with the addition of the barbarian 
mace, (termed " Lissan " and "Aboo-selem " and in use in Nubia to 
this day) above it, as \ For example, 



\ 



BARBARIAN COUNTRY. 




^<W/Vv\ 



"Kanana — barbarian country" — i. e. 
Canaan — conquests of 18th Dynasty, 
prior to B. C. 1500. 



, "Kush, barbarian country, perverse race," being the 
Egyptian designatory name and title of Negroes, prior to 
B. C. 1600. 



The names of kings were determined by the oval 
termed, by the Champollionists, " cartouche," 
I which incloses the names of Egyptian monarchs 
[during a period of 3000 years. Thus, besides 
<«^^ - m - the many other instances in these chapters, we 

j^ 9 ^ have now before us, 



PTOLeMAIS 
Ptolemy-Soter "— B. C. 304. 





KLEOPATRA 
" Cleopatra "— B. C. 52. 



To distinguish among so many sovereigns, the Egyptians, from 
some period prior to the 16th dynasty, B. C. 2272, gave to each 
Pharaoh two cartouches — the first of which is called the prenomen, 
and is generally symbolic, containing titles : while it is always the 
designatory oval by which the individual Pharaoh is known — the 
second is called his nomen, and is generally altogether phonetic, 
containing his proper name : like our Surnames and Christian names. 



No. 1. 



No. 2. 




No. 1. 
Title— Pharaoh. 
Prenomen — Sun Lord of justice. 

No. 2. 
Title— Son of the Sun. 
Nomen — AMiiNoPH, Moderator of the land 
of purity and justice — i. e. Egypt. 

Cartouches of Amunoph the 3rd, B. C. 
1692. It is his statue, which is called that 
of Memnon ! who did not exist in Pharaonic 
days in Egypt ! and whose vocality was a 
priestly humbug. 



No. 2. 




No. 1. 
Title — Pharaoh. 

Prenomen — Sun, guardian of Truth, ap. 
proved of the Sun. 
No. 2. 
Title — Son of the Sun. 
Nomen — Beloved of Amun, Ramses. 
Cartouches of Ramses III. — the great Se- 
sostris — B. C. 1565. 



No. 1. 
Title — Sun, Lord of tfie two regions, i. e. of 

Upper and Lower Egypt. 
Prenomen — Autokrator Kaiseros. 
No. 2. 
C Son of the Sun. 
Title } Lord of the Rulers — i. e. King of 

( Kings. 
Nomen — Antoninus Sebastos. 
Cartouches of the Roman emperor, Caesnr 
Antoninus Augustus ; better known as the 
infamous Caracalla, A. D. 211— being the 
last royal name found in hieroglyphics, and 
probably the last recorded in that character. 



vjf ^y Ancient Egyptian System of Numeration. 

Modern civilization, springing from the ashes of the past and 
following, often without acknowledgment, the hoary precedents of 
Asiatic and Egyptian antiquity, has adopted for the arithmetical no- 
tation of a certain series of ideas in relation to number and. quantity, 
signs which have no similarity to the system used for the exposition 
of other ideas, expressed by words in colloquial language. 

Our signs for numbers, or ciphers, are ideographic ; have no rela- 
tion to the sound of the same numbers ; are totally removed in nature 
from our alphabetic system ; and are independent of the diversities 
of language ; for, whether read in German, Spanish, English, or other 
tongue, the ciphers 1843 express that number to the mind of every 
European nation. 

The Egyptian primitive ciphers, on the contrary, are consistent in 
nature with the Nilotic system of writing, and enter, without effort, into 
one of the three methods by which their scribes represented ideas. 

Egyptian numerative signs are divisible into ordinal and cardinal ; 
the former determining the relation of an object in regard to other 
objects of the same species — as, the tenth year, the hundredth psalm ; 
the latter designating the quantity or number of these objects — as, 
one, two, three, &c. 

Cardinal numbers could, in writing, be expressed in three methods: 
1st. By the repetition of the object itself; thus a hatchet, symbolical 

of a god, ' when repeated nine times, meant 9 gods. 

2nd. By wri 6^ ting the above symbol of a god, and following it 

by marks 
3rd. By wri 



of units, as, 
ting the num 



1 



they expressed three gods. 

berphone- 
• tically, as, 
I Phtoou— 
four. 




till 

^*~~^/ , below which the cardinal num. 
^"^ \ ber was written ; as, , 



-the 



Ordinal numbers were 
determined by the sign 

Mehshoment- 
third. 

Of these methods there are some varieties. I give the elements 
of the hieroglyphic numerical table : 



TttT 



B — sign for units — repeated in groups up to 9 

n 

9 



I 
( 



tens 
hundreds 

thousands 



90 
900 

9,000 



" myriads, or tens of thousands " 90,000 



Beyond this number, they proceeded with a combination of these 
signs, resembling 10,000x2000=20,000,000. 

The Hieratic affords some reductions of the same system. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



35 



SS Nifaiat-Kah, the " country of the nine bows" — Lybia ; so 
— termed as early as Osortasen I., prior to B. C. 2000. 



flf 



Cut, hands, 
off. 



Twelve thousand, or 10,000 and 2,000 ; as in the record of 
the enemies slain, after a battle between Ramses-Maiamtjn 
IV. — B. C. 1470 — and the Asiatic nation of Mashoash. 

<^<^^ o n r\^ that is ' 12535 

I hands cut off from 

\ 



m\ 



<k 1 1 1 1 1 



O i-l i-i 



J 



the dead of the 

Mashoash, to 
show their num- 
ber ; as it is still 



the fashion among the Turks to cut off the ears of the enemy's dead, 
string them on sticks in sets of a hundred, pickle them, and send 
them to Constantinople in proof of victory. During the Greek revo- 
lution, it was customary, on both sides, to resort to the same primitive 
method of counting the dead ; though, to increase the number of such 
trophies, both Greeks and Turks generally cut off the ears of their 
own dead as well, to swell the bulletins of triumph, claimed, of course, 
by each party. In the last war with Russia, when the Turks fled 
(as they invariably will, on encountering the European bayonet,) it 
was observed, that the cavalry always made off first, lest they should 



In hieroglyphics, the sign for tear was \ , figurative of a palm 
branch, and symbolic of a year, because, L» according to Horus- 
Apollo, " of all others tins tree (the date. I palm) alone, at each 
renovation of the moon, produces one additional branch,so thatin twelve 
branches the year is completed." The plausible reason is, that, in Egypt, 
the lower branches of the date-palm are cut close to the trunk once a year. 

Month was ><£*"5s. > " the moon inverted," (Horus- Apollo) 
symbolic of lunar I . ^ motion. 

Day was /^\ , 7^ symbolic of the sun's diurnal course. 
And thus the \^s 15th of March, 1843, in hieroglyphics would be, 



n 



>H S 



I 

9999 r\e\(\r\ 

9999 1 1 I 



iionu 
i i in 



a s 



/wvv\ 



to 



© 



KAH, 

Country 



© 



KAH, 

Country, 



be fired at by their own infantry, who were anxious 
to have the benefit of their horse3 ! The most 
daring of the Turkish troopers are called Delhi 
(madmen,) from their recklessness of human life. 
Their motto is, to conquer or die ; and, as Baron 
de Tott remarks, " ils ne font ni l'un, ni l'autre." 

The ancient Egyptians understood decimals and 
fractions ; and, in short, the papyri, existing in va- 
rious museums of Europe, containing long inven- 
tories and accounts, show that the priests were 1 
masters of arithmetical book-keeping also ; a sci- /VWV\ 
ence developed 3000 years later by the Italian 
merchants. 

In their notation of time (besides the astronom- 
ical cycles, and perpetual calendar,) the Egyptians 
regulated their ordinary dates by the reign of each 
Pharaoh ; reckoning from the date of his acces- 
sion to the throne to the day of his death. As in 
England, the 5th year of Victoria, or in France, the 12th of Louis 
Philippe ; so in Egypt, an act was chronicled, " In the fourth year of 
the Pharaoh, Sheshonk, the 10th day of the month Paopi." 

This chronological system has been of immense advantage to the 
modern hierologists, by enabling them to ascertain the length of each 
king's individual reign, and also by assisting them in other computa- 
tions of relative eras for events ; while, from the multitude of tablets 
bearing dates, and still existing, we can correct and confirm history. 
I give further on, in a note, some facts relating to Persian monarchs, 
and will add two other instances. 

Manetho tells us, that Sesostris (who is our Ramses 3rd — B. C. 
1565) reigned 66 years, 2 months. A few years ago it was pretended 
(even with the example of George III. before our eyes,) that such a 
reign was extremely improbable. We now have Stelfe bearing dates, 
of the 3rd, 4th, 8th, 9th, 14th, 30th, 34th, 35th, 37th, 38th, 40th, 44th, 
and 62nd years of his reign. Nor need longevity be claimed for the 
ancient Egyptians ; because, while the Almighty vouchsafed to the 
Hebrew patriarchs an especial duration of life, we have positive evi- 
dences that, in Egypt and among Egyptians, the average life of man, in 
ages before Abraham, was precisely what it is at present. 

Again, Thotmes the 4th (Mceris) is said, by historians, to have 
reigned only 12 years 9 months. 

When, in 1839, my much-honored friend, A. C. Harris, Esq., of 
Alexandria, and myself, wandered one day in quest of " hieroglyph- 
ical adventures," along the craggy ledges, caverns, tombs and quar- 
ries of the hills behind Zebayda (middle Egypt,) we stumbled on a 
tablet apparently of the forty-second year of this king, which seemed 
to record that, in this year of his reign, stone had been quarried at 
this place for the temple of Thoth at Hermapolis Magna — Aishmoo- 
neyn — on the opposite side of the Nile. If this should prove authen- 
tic, we should be enabled to correct history from a hiero- 
glyphical date. Sir J. G. Wilkinson had already found dates 
of the 27th (see Materia Hieroglyphica ;) and this fact de- 
mands a more critical investigation of the tablet alluded to, 
than in our hurried ramble we were able to compass ; as it 
would amend Rosellini's and Champollion Figeac's arrange- V/jrw rrfi^ A. I 0. 
mentof the later reigns of the 18th dynasty. The vast relics An p" 
left by Mceris, seem to demand an extension of his reign be. 
yond 12 years and 9 months. 

From the summit of the hill, I directed my telescope with 
vain regrets toward the mounds of Aishmooneyn ; where, up to 1825, 
a noble portico, (added by Ptolemy-Lagus, in the name of Philip 
Arridaeus, about B. C. 320, to the temple, which had then existed for 
1600 years,) had stood, in majesty, and in safety, at which time 
Mohammed Ali caused at to be destroyed, to supply building ma- 
terials for his regenerating and civilizing rum-distillery at Mellawee. 



I will now proceed to the analysis of one hieroglyphical text, and 
the production of a few others ; by which the reader will be con. 
vinced, that these things are no longer, thanks to the Champollionists, 
" unintelligible mysteries." 

" Grammaire Egyptienne," p. 398 — and Champollion Figeac, p. 
225. Read from right to left. 




L\. 



i %. 



-A> 



SHE-lHr KHONS. EIT1, 



to go, 



Khons, I accord 



/ww\ 



& 



B S H T N, AN , AN. SI-T, NOHEM, 

Bashtan, of. Chief, of, the daughter, to rescue. 

No. 1 — is composed of two signs, the figure of the god Khons, re- 
cognizable by his emblems — he is the subject of the proposition, 
and signifies, " I the god Khons ;" the other sign above him is 
phonetic, and is the root of the verb eiti — to give, or accord. 
No. 2 — is phonetic — it reads she-m, and signifies, to go. 
No. 3 — the pronoun is phonetic — the figure that of a king — the group 

reads pephhont, his majesty. 
No. 4 — is L, the preposition to. 

No. 5 — the first four signs are phonetic — Bashtan — the other two, 
one figurative of a country, the other symbolic of civilization — 
meaning a civilized country. 
No. 6 — is L, the preposition to. 

7 — is phonetic — reading nohem, to rescue, deliver. 
8 — is phonetic and symbolic — si-t, daughter. 
9 — is phonetic — N, the preposition of. 
10 — is figurative of the idea, chief. 
11— is N, of. 
12 — as above, No. 5. 
The current translation is, " I, the god Khons, consent that his 
majesty (the king of Egypt) should go to the civilized country of 
Bashtan, to rescue (probably to marry) the daughter of the chief of 
the country of Bashtan." 

This extract is from the 15th line of an historical tablet, existing 
in the ruins, southeast of Karnac, Thebes. Epoch uncertain. 



No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 



The following are facsimile texts, culled from Champollion's 
grammar, to illustrate the method introduced by that immortal 
scholar, for translating hieroglyphical legends into Coptic, and thence 
into French 

A— Page 409. 

A A 



I — V. /W 



I 

deux obelisques, 



/NA/VVVN 



rfd.i-eipe 



?' 



j'a; fait 
(eriger 



4 

£fi.OYf> 

la gauche, 



I 

& 



" On the left hand, (or western bank of the Nile,) I have caused 
two obelisks to be erected." 

Speech ot Amonoph the 3rd. — on a stela dedicatory of his palace, 
the Amunophium, Thebes — B. C. 1690. 



99 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



B— Page 408. 



fci*y 



* 



/vw\ 



r W . r v /vwv\ 



Amon. 



TTd£TCJ 

mon pere. 



/VWV\ 



rr 



i 1 l 



«i tfr 



nG^cou 



rrdr-elbe 



p ! 



de Ie-> ordre3 

" I have executed the orders of my father, Araun." 
C— Page 184. 



J'executai 



/WWv 



rrr 



b ^^2^^ A Q ff ft 

w* 335 III f^. in i\?V in «#» y 

Tnir w* TeriJiero ua,-er ©ipw &p^t£UT rudT rrerup 



cet, edifice, contemplez, venez. Deny, qui resiHez, grands, 

dans 

" O great gods, who reside in Derry, come and contemplate this edifice !" 



O dieux' 



Dedications of the temple of Amada, in. Nubia, epoch about 1700, B. C. At this very day, there is an adjacent town named Derr 
while its ancient name was The-Ee, the abode of Rha, the Sun — a Heliopolis, in Nubia ! 



D— Page 405-6. 



Egrpte ! 



AWV\ 



fi 



mu7Af*s 



ncovTir uu 

roi O 



\ — 



CfT'KT 

diaent. 



1'Ethiopie, 



75 
I 
if*.- 

de 



= G> 



ni^di&rr 



des peuples etrangers 



m 

UUHpI 

les chefe, 



(uj)npH 



O soleil 



** The chiefs of Kush-countries (i. e. Negro countries, lying above lat. 15.) say, King of Egypt ! Sun of foreign nations I" 

From the tomb of an African prince, at Thebes. 



E— page 500. 
f^-^] /WWA n^ = ^ /VW\A C=*=»< 



-** /VM /n^x -<££- ^'^ 

mil TTK&g rr nrrHi. tf jt-&4. Hump J n erne er 



entiere, 



la terre, 



/VSAAA 



^tfOJCl ffj& 



avec lui. 



entiere, 



de, seigneur, 

de la terr* 



du, grand. 



f — S3 

ies contrees, 



chef, 



du, etant, 



la venue. 



_ M 

etc KHue p fcCu&oa 

voici, l'Egypte, ver^ Camby»e, 



U 






*' On the coming of the great chief, lord of the whole earth, Cambyses, to Egypt, behold ! all the nations marched with him" — alluding W 
the vast army of the Persians. From an inscription on the statue of the priest, "Outohem Pisoten," in the Vatican Museum, Rome 



F— page 500-1. 



£f t 

vivant, toujours, 





^? 



AA//v\ 



■?~£ T S 



TPOYULI TTCTrr rr TJurfT OX&& 



L 



rrif 



Darius, roi du, la majeste, u moi, 



ordonna. 



dTUD 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



27 



fvt 

vKptVi. 



r — i 

© 






f J 



£UL eeiurfTOT&dii gjc Khug p 



Arma-pays, 



dam. 



sa majesty. 



Es?pte, 



£4 

'fie j 

quej'allasse 



"And his majesty, King Darius, ever living, ordered me to go to Egypt, while his majesty was in Aram;" i. e. Assyria — now called 
Roum, the root of Armenia. Same statue — epoch between B. C. 525 and 485— 



Idem — page 183. 

The subjoined example will afford a good idea of the transition from the linear hieroglyphical character into the hieratic. It ia from 
the grand " Ritual for the Dead." 



(3 



cSJtJl) 



nft 3 $i* n 



/V\AAA T <S A/VW\ MAM L^VI J? 




uji.pOK two-rog .i&HTrrrermooT g« n<s.nt«Tpw 

vers toi, je suis arrivd, la demeure, de, l'eau. dans, celui. diau. O, 

" god, who residest in the habitation of waters, I have arrived as far as thee !" 



The following are extracted from the " Antiquities of Egypt," be- 
fore referred to, with some additional notes. 
G. 



II r 

tt 

AS 

Ti 



Under 

thy sandals 
(is) 

Kol, the barbarian land 

Kush, (Nigritia) 
(is) 



IB*I thy grasp. 

" Kol, the barbarian land, is beneath thy sandals ; Kush (Nigritia) 
is within thy grasp." 

Conquests of Ramses 2nd ; depicted in the Hemispeos of Beyt-el- 
Walee, Nubia— B. C. 1570. 

Kol, or Kor, was an Asiatic country. The phraseology is identi- 
cal with Romans xvi., 20 — 1 Cor. xv., 25-7. The same analogy to 
the measured phrases or parallelisms of the Hebrew poetry is equally 
discernible in the succeeding H and I ; as well as in most Egyptian 
legends : strongly confirmatory of the common Asiatic origin of both 
nations. 

H. 



/WW\ 


Thy 






\CZ) 


name 






<aih»( 


(is) 








firm 






-Mm 


as 






«« 


heaven ; 






10^ 


the duration of thy days (is 


as) 


(VV^aB 


the disc 


of the Sun. 




©r 









Western face of the Obelisk of Luqsor — Place de la Concorde, 
Paris — sculptures of Ramses 3rd — Sesostris — B. C. 1550. 



?! 



O thou 



ruler 



of 



f§j J Egypt, 
© • (thou) 

J Sun 



MM 



of 



*****? " Nifaiat" — Lybia — (literally, the nine bows) 

in ill 

/»"^^^ shall not be (stand) 



/WVv\ 

™ I the impure 




) (J before thee 



" thou ruler of Egypt, thou sun of Lybia, the impure shall not 
stand before thee." " Nifaiat" is the plural of phet, Coprice, a bow; 
singularly associated with Phut, the son of Ham, whose descendants 
colonized the " Beliid-ed-djereed" — countries of the date-palm — or 
Barbary. The bow reminds us of the Numidian, archers. 

From a tablet at Aboosimbel, Nubia, addressed to Ramses 3rd by 
an African prince — B. C. 1550. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



m> 1 

mi 


His hand 

is 
fiim 


AWA 




lie 


on 
his 


6 


chariot 
like 



tt i Monthou, Mars, 
Lord 



To 



of the land of purity and justice— Egypt. 



Conquests of Ramses 2nd— defeat of African nations, at BeyUel. 
Walee—B. C. 1570. 



K. 

A Threshing Song. 

U j\ Tread ye out 

III 

A/Wv\ for yourselves 

vwv\ 
III 

(5>\\ twice (i. e. bis, meaning, this sentence to be sung twice) 

X^\ oxen 
i ijr 

Tread ye out 



<WW\ 

1,1 for yourselves 

/VW\A 



Tread ye out 
for yourselves 

straw 

for 
men 

the grain (a bushel pouring out grain) 

who (are) 
your masters. 



Construction rhythmical. 
Tread ye out for yourselves, 
Tread ye out for yourselves, 

oxen ! 



Tread ye out for yourselves, 
Tread ye out for yourselves, 

the straw ; 
For men, who are your masters, 

the grain. 



Or paraphrased. 

Hie along, oxen ! tread the corn faster ; 

The straw for yourselves, the grain for your master. 

Discovered by Champollion le Jeune, in 1828, in a legend over 
peasants, pictured in the act of threshing corn. Date prior to B. C. 
1500 — probably much more remote. 

The Fellahs of the present day sing in all their agricultural occu. 
pations ; and the words of their simple melodies are often identical 
in nature to the above ; while I have no doubt, that the air of the 
ancient chant of " Maneros " is still preserved in the plaintive 
(third-minor) notes of modern Egyptians. 

Many a time, in my long rambles in Lower Egypt, have I paused 
to catch the wild, but exquisitely sweet songs of the peasant and the 
boatman — blended with the incessant notes of the " Ciclade," the 
hum of the wild bee, and the monotonous drone of the distant sdkia 
(water-wheel.) 

In Egypt, the grain is separated from the stalk by a bullock-ma- 
chine, called the noreg. There the " ox is not muzzled as he treads 
the grain," though man is muzzled by Mohammed Ali. 



w 



if 



L. 

1st Column — " The Osiriana — (i. e. taken unto Osiris, 
meaning, the deceased) goddess, queen Onknas, 
sun with a good heart, the truth-teller. The royal 
daughter of King Psametik, (Psameticus 1st, B. 
C. 650,) the truth-teller." 

2nd Column — " The Osiriana, goddess, queen, Onk- 
nas, sun with a good heart, the truth-teller. Her 
mother was the divine queen Nitockit (Nitocris, 
wife of the above Psameticus) the truth-teller." 



From the Sarcophagus of queen Onknas, the sister 
of Haphre (Apries, Pharaoh Hophra of Scripture) and 
the wife of Aahmes, Amasis, B. C. 569. It is re. 
markable, that Herodotus says, that the tombs of this 
Amasis and his wife, were violated by the insane 
Cambyses, B. C. 525. 

Now this sarcophagus was discovered by the 
French officers of the Luqsor,(the vessel sent to Thebes 
for the Obelisk, in 1831,) in a pit 125 feet deep, be- 
hind the palace of Luqsor. It was found broken open, 
the mummy burnt, and the scorched remains of the 
desecrated queen, lying around the sarcophagus. It 
is now safe in the British Museum. 




translation. 
" Knura, the Creator, on his 
wheel moulds the divine members 
of Osiris (the type of man) in 
the shining house of life" — that 
is, in the solar disc. 

The god Amun-Kneph, tur- 
ning a potter's wheel, mould- 
ing the mortal part of Osiris, 
the Father of men, out of a 
lump of clay. The clay is 
placed on the potter's-wheel, 
which he turns with his foot, 
while he fashions it with his 
hands. It is a subject from 
the mystic chamber of the 
Temple of Phils— 1st Cata- 
ract. 

Amun-Kneph, or Neph, 
Kneph, Chnouphis, Noub — 
represents the "creative pow- 
er of Amun" — that is, " the 
spirit of God" — the brejith 
of life poured into our nos. 
ti-ils. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



29 



He moulds man; in Hebrew, Adam,| 
the firat man, meaning both man, and 
red earth, or clay. Now consult Isaiah 
lxiv, 8. " But now, O Lord, thou art 
our Father : We are the clay, (in Hebrew Adme, red earth) and 
thou our potter ; and we are all the work of thy hand." 



'VR&&L 



N 



attain (come) 




Khnum, (one of the forms of Amon, the creator) 



the creator, (the idea denoted by a man building the 
walls of a city) 



Y 1 of all 
V^L A Mankind, (literally men and women.) 

Ill 

" May thy soul attain to Khnum, the Creator of all mankind." 

This alone is a proof of the primitive Egyptian creed of one God, 
the Creator, (whose divine attributes were classed in triads) of man's 
possession of a soul, and of its immortality ; of a resurrection, and 
of the hope of such. 

Let it stand, for the present, as an insight into the pristine purity 
of Egyptian belief, in ages prior to Abraham's visit ; and let the con- 
stant expression of" beloved of a god," " loving the gods," like the 
Hebrew, " dilectus a domine suo, Samuel," (in the Vulgate,) " be. 
loved of his Lord, Samuel ;" attest the primeval piety of the Nilotic 
family over all contemporary nations, whom we are pleased to con- 
demn as Pagans. 



NOTES ON EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 

The term Obelisk is derived from the Latin obeliscus, a diminutive 
of the Greek word obelos, meaning literally a spit, to indicate the pe- 
culiar form of this species of monument ; on the same classical prin- 
ciple, that in our day, we facetiously designate them needles. 

With more propriety, though with equal foundation, they have been 
termed " rays of the sun ;" but, as the Egyptians had apparently no 
such idea, when they placed them before their gigantic edifices, we 
need not pause to inquire into the reason of the appellation. 

They are purely historical monoliths, generally of syenite, 
cut by order of a Pharaoh, and placed originally in pairs, in front of 
large royal or religious buildings, to record in their inscriptions, the 
name, titles, and dedicatory offerings of the monarch, whose munifi- 
cence and piety had built, repaired, or otherwise embellished the 
edifices which these obelisks adorned. 

The obelisk, on the cover of this essay, is a copy (with one or two 
slight inaccuracies) of the one still erect at Heliopolis. It is the most an- 
cient, as well as one of the most beautiful extant, dating about 2070, 
B. C, in the reign of Osortasen the 1st— of the 16th Diospolitan Dy- 
nasty. 

It is the sole remaining one of a pair that stood together on the 
same spot (perhaps the other is there still, under the alluvium,) about 
647 years ago, in the time of the Arab historian, Abd-el-Lateef ; 
and confirms the rumors handed down to us by Herodotus and Pliny 
of the former existence of an obelisk there. 

Its height is about sixty-one feet, and its base six and a half. It 
is a beautiful shaft of red granite from the quarries of Syene, distant 
six hundred and forty miles from its present site, to which it was 
conveyed by Osortasen. 



I subjoin Rosellini's translation. 




1f 



The Horus, 



[Living of men,] 



Pharaoh, 



SUN OFFERED TO THE 
WORLD, 



Lord of upper and lower Egypt, 
the living of men, 
Son of the sun, 

OSORTASEN, 



beloved of the spirits In the region 
of Pone, 



ever living, 

life of mankind, 
resplendent Horus, 

beneficent deity, 



SUN OFFERED TO THE 
WORLD, 



who has begun the celebration of 
his two panegyries (i. e. general 
assemblies) to him who makes 
him, 



Vivifierfor ever. 

That is, dedicated to Phre, the god sun, to whom was dedicated 
the city, on the ruins of which this obelisk now stands — termed in 
hieroglyphics, the city of Phre; in Greek, Heliopolis, the city of the 
Sun ; in Hebrew, On and Beth.Shemmim, the " House of the Sun ;" 
in Saracenic Arabic, Ain-es-shems, fountain of the Sun ; and in the 
Ddrig, or colloquial Arabic of the present day, Matareiyeh, fresh 
water, from the purity of its springs. 

As an instance of the misconceptions, still prevailing all over the 



30 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



world on Egyptian subjects, attributable to indifference or to care, 
lessness of observation ; for which, in 1843, there is but little excuse, 
correct information being now accessible to all ; and as an evidence 
that, in 1843, a man who knows nothing of a subject, should at least 
abstain from writing about it ; I extract the following paragraphs 
from "The American in Paris," or Heath's Picturesque Annual for 
1843 — by Monsieur Jules Janin — pages 22 and 23 — on the obelisk 
of Luqsor, now standing in the Place de la Concorde, Paris. 

" Picture to yourself a single block of stone twenty-four feet high ; 
its color a beautiful red. You would say this exquisite stone was 
transparent, it so dazzles you with its beauty : it is slender and deli- 
cate, and is covered with a thousand hieroglyphical characters, which 
will for a long time, torment the Champollions present and to come. 
They were obliged to seek this long stone in the.desert ; to take it 
down from its almost eternal foundation, where it had stood erect 
for three thousand years." 

" To come from so great a distance, to tear Cleopatra's needle 
from its base,tobringitto this hole, and to die in this muddy and un- 
wholesome puddle !" 
" I have seen the foolish taking root : but suddenly I cursed his habitation."— Job, v. 3. 

Had the volatile French author, or his equally careless English 
translator, taken the least pains to inquire (as Mr. Aldrich has done 
/n his excellent letter from Paris — vide " New World" — 25th Feb- 
ruary, 1843) before they wrote the above, the purchaser of Heath's 
Picturesque Annual need not have regretted a portion of his extrava- 
gant outlay. 

Monsieur Janin's organs of vision must be strangely defective, 
and must disqualify him altogether forjudging of the sizes and heights 
of anything in Paris ; when an obelisk, whose shaft measures above 
severity-five feet English, should dwindle in his view to twenty-four. 
A schoolboy could have given him better information at a glance ; 
nor would his enlightened Government have expended two millions 
of francs, to transfer the obelisk, termed by Monsieur Janin, a needle 
of Cleopatra, from the temple of Luqsor at Thebes ; which stands 
on the very bank of the Nile, and on the fertile alluvium, bounded 
on three sides by verdant fields — a long walk from Monsieur Janin's 
desert. The chronological era indicated for Cleopatra, B. C. 1157, 
is certainly novel, and is Monsieur Janin's copyright. Nor is the 
sentimental lament about the demise " of this long stone" calculated 
to elevate " la Place de la Concorde" in the opinion of those, whose 
knowledge of Paris is derived from Monsieur Janin's account. 

If the English translator had sought to correct his original's pue- 
rilities, he might have selected the following exquisite description of 
the two obelisks of Luqsor, from the Appendix to the second volume 
of the " Egyptian Antiquities," published under the superintendence 
of the Society for the diffusion of Useful Knowledge, in the Library 
of entertain^ Knowledge — London 1836 — page 375. 

" Both the obelisks are in a state of perfect preservation ; the 
larger is about eighty-two English feet high, and the other about 
vhree hundred and thirty-six feet shorter." 

Monsieur Jules Janin informs the world in general, that the inscrip- 
' ions on the Parisian obelisk will, "for along time torment the 
Champollions present and to come." He writes this at Paris, as his 
private opinion, in the autumn of 1842. 

If he had seen fit to ask in any Parisian bookstore, he might have 
found a neat pamphlet, entitled " Salvolini's Translation," of this 
identical obelisk, published in French, about 1837. Or he might, at 
any bookseller's, or in a decent library public or private, have read 
in " L'Univers Pittoresque", Ancient Egypt, by Champollisn Figeac, 
published in 1840, pages 78 to 84, and therefrom have gleaned a 
complete refutation of his silly assertion. I will suppose that Mon- 
sieur Janin never heard of Champollion le Jeune's "Lettres ecrites 
de l'Egypte et de la Nubie ;" published at Paris in 1830, because it 
is fashionable to make use of Champollion's name, and to write 
about his "mighty discoveries," among authors who have not the 
remotest idea of what those discoveries really are. 

If Monsieur Janin can read Italian, he might have consulted, in 
any Parisian library, Rosellini's " Monumenti dell' Egitto e della 
Nubia ;» vol. 3rd ; Monti Storici ; part 2nd ; page 199, et seq. ; 
published in 1839 ; wherein he would have found a translation of this 
identical obelisk verbatim et literatim. Or if he can read English, 
our author, before he issued his " fadaises," might have looked into 
Sir J. G. Wilkinson's, " Topography of Thebes," pages 167-8 ; pub- 
lished in London, 1835; or finally, Monsieur Janin could have re- 
moved his doubts, had he deemed it expedient to peruse the " Man- 
ners and Customs of the ancient Egyptians ;" London, first series 
1837 — second series 1841. 

In reviews, pamphlets, periodicals, travels, &c, of all dates since 
1836, and in all European languages, Monsieur Janin could have 
been edified on the obelisk of Luqsor. Nay, had he inquired of a 
policeman in Paris, the fountain source of hierological science, he 
might have enlightened himself on this tioenty-four feet obelisk in 
the " Place de la Concorde ;" the hieroglyphical names on which, 
for the last six years, have been transferred to the French govern- 
ment steamboats, under the familiar designations of " Le Rham- 
ses," "Le Sesostris," plough the waters of the Mediterranean and 
Archipelago ! 

Under the letter Hj I have given an extract of the address to Ram- 



ses — Sesostris — from the obelisk of Luqsor, viz. ; " Thy name is firm 
as heaven ; the duration of thy days is as the disc of the sun." 

Its total height is, French feet 70, inches 3, lines 5. Its total 
weight is estimated at " 220,528 kilogrammes," equivalent to 4457 
quintals ; or, about 246 of our tons. 

It was cut at the granite quarries of Sycne, at the 1st Cataract, by 
order of Ramses 2nd, about B. C. 1570, and transported to Luqsor, 
distant 138 miles ; when the medial inscriptions on three of its four 
faces, were engraven in honor of this Pharaoh. It was erected, with 
its fellow, on the northern front of the Palace of this Monarch : whose 
demise occurring before the fourth central column of inscriptions 
was completed, his brother and successor, Ramses 3rd — Sesostris — 
added his own names, titles, and dedications, in the fourth medial 
line and in two lateral columns on each face — about B. C. 1550. 

And in substance, these later inscriptions attest, that " Ramses 
Amunmai, Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, son of the male and 
female deities, Lord of the World, Sun Guardian of Truth, approved 
of the Sun, has made these works,* for his father, Amun-Rha,t and 
that he has erected these two great Obelisks in hard stone before the 
Ramsessiumt of the city§ of Amun." 

In conclusion, every Egyptian obelisk, existing in any part of the 
world, is now well-known ; and the entire inscriptions, on each one, 
are translated and published. 

Those now at Alexandria were cut at Syene, by Thotmes 4th — 
Maeris — 750 miles from their present site, as far back as 1720 B. C. 
He caused the central inscriptions on the four faces to be sculptured, 
and transferred them to Thebes or Memplris. Ramses 3rd, about 
B. C, 1550, added the lateral inscriptions ; and, in later times, an. 
other Pharaoh engraved his own names and titles. Subsequently to 
B. C. 300, the Ptolemies, to embellish their Greco-Egyptian capital, 
transferred them to Alexandria, where they were placed in front of 
some great public edifice (probably before the sea-ward gate of the 
palace) and where they are still supposed, by ninety-nine out of a 
hundred, to have served Cleopatra as darning needles. 

The obelisk in the Hippodrome at Constantinople, is also a work 
of Thotmes 4th. Those at Rome bear inscriptions of various Pha- 
raohs, and Roman Emperors. Of all the obelisks, the largest and 
most beautiful is that of Karnac, at Thebes ; cut by Queen Amense, 
about B. C, 1760 ; it is a single shaft of the purest and most ex. 
quisitely polished syenite, in height about 90 feet, and in weight 
about 400 tons. 

In elucidating the numerous pictorial illustrations of my subsequent 
lectures, in addition to the various hieroglyphical texts already sub. 
mitted to the reader, I shall have occasion to apply all the grammat- 
ical rules and syntactical inflections, which might have been ex. 
pounded in the course of this chapter. I purposely abstain from the 
dry exposition of the parts of speech ; as few would relish the sub. 
ject of hieroglyphical articles ; declension of substantives ; pronouns 
isolated, affixed, prefixed, possessive, conjunctive, demonstrative, or 
vague ; verbs of every variety, with their regular or irregular conju. 
gations, in persons, cases, moods, and tenses ; participles, and 
gerunds ; prepositions ; adverbs ; adjectives ; conjunctions ; or inter- 
jections. The curious in these matters are referred to that sublime 
mental achievement — Champollion's Grammar of Egyptian Hiero- 
glyphics — whence I have selected the more prominent subjects of 
this chapter. 

I have a copy of this grammar ; but a more recent and better 
digested condensation of grammatical hierology is " Dr. Leipsius's 
Letter to Prof. Rosellini" — Rome, 1836. I read it in Egypt ; and it 
is one of more than a hundred volumes, published in Europe within the 
last twenty years, which, so far as I have been able to learn, are not 
to be found in any public library in this country. || 



* Works— meaning the Palace of Luqsor. The word Luqsor is Arabic, and means 
" the palaces." 

t jlmun-Rha— the supreme God of Egypt. 

t Ramscssium— the modern hierological name for edifices of the Ramses— since the 
hieroglyphical name of them is " the habitation of the Ramses." The so-called Mcrn- 
nonium is also a Ramsessium. 

§ City of Amun— the ancient name of Thebes— Diospolis in Greek— the city of Jove 
The hieroglyphics of this name will be found hereinafter. 

|| As an evidence that I am not talking idly, 1 subjoin a Catalogue sent me, from 
Egypt, by the erudite Dr. Leipsius, of the works he has published on Archaeology since 
1833. Four only of these have I had the advantage of consulting. I have seen extract* 
and reviews of some of the others ; but, not having been able to meet with a single volume 
of them, since I crossed the Atlantic, there are many witii which I am unacquainted. 

"la Latin— De TabulisEugubinis ; Berolini, 8vo., 1833. In Ocrjnan— Paleography, 
as a means of linguistical researches, demonstrated in the Sanscrit ; Berlin, 8vo., 183d, 
1S42. Comparisons of the names of number, in the Indo-Germanic, Semitic, and Egyp- 
tian languages, 1835. On the origin and order of Alphabets among the Greeks, He- 
brews, ancient Persians, Indians, Ethiopians, and Egyptians, 8vo., 1836. In French— 
Letter on the Hieroglyphical Alphabet, Rome, 1836. On the order of "Colonnes- 
piliers" in Egypt ; Rome, 1838. In Latin— Inscriptiones Umbrica! et Osoae ; Leipsia\ 1841. 
In Ocrman— On the Architecture of the Normans in Sicily, Normandy, and England, 
1 vol., with 23 plntes ; Leipsic, 1841. The Funereal Ritual of the Egyptians, translation, 
with 79 plates; 1841. On the Pelasgians. On the Monetary System of the Etruscans. 
Selection of the most important documents of the Ancient Egyptians, in progress ol 
publication; 1842. Dissertations m the "Annals of the Archaeological Institute," 
Rome; 1835 to 1839. On a Vase, with inscriptions. Observations on an Etruscan Vase, 
witli two Greek, and one Pelasgic inscriptions. On the value of an Etruscan letter. 
Notice of two Egyptian Statutes; Analysis of their inscriptions. Notice of the Bas- 
reliefs at Beyroot. Dissertations, in the " Bulletins of the Archaeological Institute;'' 
]S26'tolS38. On an Etruscan Sarcophagus. On a Statue at Tadi. On two Egyptian 
Colossi at Berlin. In the "Literary Gazette;" 1839, on the Obelisk of Philoe, in Eng 
land. Le'ter to Moris, Lenormnnt, on the Inscriptions in the great Pyramid; Paris 
1839. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



31 



That great work, Champollion's Monuments of Egypt and of 
Nubia, exists only in the private libraries of Francis C. Gray, Esq., 
and the Hon. John Pickering, of Boston, besides a portion in my 
own possession. Prof. Rosellini's "Monumenti dell 'Egitto e della 
Nubia," is to be found only in the library of R. K. Haight, Esq., of 
this city, although ten years have elapsed since the 1st volume of text 
and the 1st livraison of plates appeared. 

I have heard, on undoubted authority, that about six years ago, a 
copy of these first portions of Rosellini was sent to the United 
States, and shown to many of the leading publishers and librarians 
from Boston to Washington ; but as not even the Congressional Li- 
brary deemed its acquisition worth the expense (1000 francs at Paris, 
or less than two hundred dollars,) it was returned to Europe. I am 
aware, that from Boston, and from Philadelphia orders for the most 
important hierological works have been since sent to the Continent 
and to England. 

If, therefore, I have now the gratification of laying, before an 
American public, views upon Egypt, as novel in nature as in results 
surprising, the advantage does not accrue to me from my own capa- 
city or acquirements, but from the fact, that in this country, the labors 
of the Champollionists have, by the mass, been disregarded. 

And yet, monthly, there issue from the press of this country, as in 
England, and even on the Continent, works on every subject bearing 
upon Nilotic paleography. Travels, biblical commentaries, histories 
of* primijive times, Encyclopedias, learned and unlearned disquisi- 
tions affecting ancient Egyptian questions. Whenever they are not 
penned with a knowledge of what, in the last fifteen years, has been 
accomplished by the Champollion school, they are, in 1843, valueless 
on Ancient Egypt. 

Are not, however, Egyptian studies, and the mythology, philoso- 
phy, and doctrines of that misrepresented race, interesting to the 
divine who attests the unity of the Godhead and the holy Trinity ? 
Can the theologian derive no light from the pure primeval faith, that 
glimmers from Egyptian hieroglyphics, to illustrate the immortality 
of the soul and a final resurrection ?* Will not the historian deign 
to notice the prior origin of every art and science in Egypt, a thou- 
sand years before the Pelasgians studded the isles and capes of the 
Archipelago with their forts and temples? long before Etruscan civili- 
zation had smiled under Italian skies ? And shall not the ethnogra- 
pher, versed in Egyptian lore, proclaim the fact, that the physiological, 
craniological, capillary and cuticular distinctions of the human race 
existed, on the first distribution of mankind throughout the earth ? 

Philologists, astronomers, chemists, painters, architects, physicians, 
must return to Egypt, to learn the origin of language and writing — 
of the calendar and solar motion — of the art of cutting granite with a 
copper chisel and of giving elasticity to a copper sword — of making 
glass with the variegated hues of the rainbow — of moving single 
blocks of polished syenite, 900 tons in weight, for any distance, by 
land and water — of building arches, round and pointed, with masonic 
precision unsurpassed at the present day and antecedent, by 2000 
years, to the "Cloaca Magna" of Rome — of sculpturing a Boric 
column, 1000 years before the Dorians arc known in history — of 
fresco painting in imperishable colors — and of practical knowledge 
in anatomy. 

Every craftsman can behold, in Egyptian monuments, the progress 
of his art 4000 years ago ;' and, whether it be a wheelwright building 
a chariot — a shoemaker drawing his twine — a leather-cutter using 
the self-same form of knife of old, as is considered the best form 
now — a weaver throwing the same hand-shuttle — a whitesmith using 
that identical form of blowpipe, but lately recognized to be the most 
efficient — the seal-engraver cutting, in hieroglyphics, such names as 
Shoofho's, above 4300 years ago — or even the poulterer removing 
the pip from geese — all these, and many more astounding evidences 
of Egyptian priority, now require but a glance at the plates of 
Rosellini. 



*It is vain, in the present enlightened age, to shrink from the astounding evidences 
of a pure revealed religion, in existence among the Gentiles, in ages anterior to Abra- 
ham and Moses ; or, with Tcrtttllian, to anathematize these important inquiries ; or, 
with him, to attribute the pure doctrines of remote antiquity, to the forethought and 
machinations ot the spirit of darkness. 

11 What though Moses did write when the world had grown old ! 

The " wisdom of Egypt had then ever long told. 

That " in the beginning God created " this world, 

And that every swift star from his own hand was hurl'd. 

We will once more repeat, what though Moses did write, 

That in the beginning " God said, Let there be light ;" 

''AH the wisdom " he spake was btot Egypt's old lore, 

Thence he learned all he knew, there 'twas taught long before. 

Though Moses " was learn'd in all the wisdom" of yore, 

Diospolitan craft, and Heliopolite lore ; 

Yet in those latter days, the blind " wisdom " of man, 

No more saw the spirit of Jehovah's great plan. 

Themyst'ries of Heaven, through bold divination. 

Profanely were grasped'at, nnd called revelation : 

When Moses sojourned with the Arabian sage, 

His " wisdom " was worldly, like the lore of that age. 

But when Inspiration was vouchsafed him at last, 

Then the bright light of Truth flashed roll o'er the past ; 

Then mystic Traditions received explanation. 

The Symbolical page became Revelation — " 

"The Tlicrophants." 
These views of R. K. IF. are perfectly in accordance with present high-church ortho- 
doxy. Independently of ilie numerous theological nnd other references, contained in 
the previous chapter, I again quote the authority of Hales, Lamb, Fabcr and Allix, 



Can the enthusiasm of a hierologist be doubted ? or is it to be 
supposed that such lights are to continue under the shadows of 
indifference, or be extinguished by the doubts of self-complacent scep- 
ticism ? that the oil which feeds the paleographer's lamp shall freeze 
in a gelid shade ? that the stupified ban of heterodoxy shall thwart 
an archaeologist's labors ? It cannot be. It will not be. It is but 
to place the facts before the American public, and we shall soon 
exclaim with Galileo, " ma pur si muove," hut yet it moves. 

A very few of these facts are herein submitted to the reader. 
Cheerfully do I contribute my mite to advance the cause of literature 
and science, by furnishing the key to the profound labors of others. 
As of erst a free-trader in commerce, so now in the .capacity of a 
free-trader in literature, the writer tenders to the public through the 
cheapest mode of diffusion, such information as he may possess on 
ancient Egyptian subjects ; which he has derived from the works of 
others, as they, in general, obtained their knowledge from the con- 
templation of antiquity through the medium of their predecessors. 
We all of us are merely passing on, from hand to hand, the learning 
of our forefathers, fashioned according to conventional models that 
we can rarely call our own. 

I am unwilling to close this dissertation on the language and wri- 
ting of the ancient Egyptians, without adverting to two points, upon 
which much interesting investigation can be pursued. 

The first regards the numerous affinities traceable between the 
Hebrew on the one hand, and the Nilotic sacred, or classical lan- 
guage on the other. Critical analysis and comparative chronological 
collations may serve to establish, by logical deduction, the relative 
antiquity of both tongues. My own impression is, that the result 
would establish a common primeval origin for this, as in other ques- 
tions ; or compel an acknowledgment of the priority of the Egyptian 
tongue. We have now, however, indisputable evidence of the 
Asiatic origin and Caucasian race of the earliest denizens of the Nile ; 
and can smile at the long-asserted descent of civilization from Ethi- 
opia, (that unknown land of fable) or, at the idea of its origin among 
any African tribe. This will be made clear in the sequel ; and this 
fact will remove a host of dilemmas, by tracing Hebrews and Egyp- 
tians to a probably-simultaneous departure from their common Asiatic 
hive. 

In the first chapter, I maintained, that it has been too customary 
to seek in trifles for confirmations of scriptural authority, where none 
exist ; and it has often happened, that, while making parade of little 
circumstances, which have a very small bearing on the truths of the 
Bible, the more important confirmations are overlooked. 

Modern hierology, however, begins to throw light on the Penta- 
teuch ; and I will give the following example (one of many similar) 
in confirmation of Acts vii. 22, that " Moses* was learned in all 
the wisdom of the Egyptians ;" and in corroboration of the assurance 

of St. Clement ( of Alexandria, A. D. 194,) that " the symbols 

of the Egyptians are similar to those of the Hebrews." Stromates V.t 

From the earliest times, in ages long anterior to Abraham's visit, 



among the Egyptians, the asp 
its Greek name basilisk implie 
sacred to, the god Neph, whic 
the " spirit of God." It had 



was an emb'em of royalty ; as 
The asp was typical of, and 
h deity was 'an incarnation of 
likewise other significations con- 



nected with mythology. Every Pharaoh bears the asp on his crown. 
In the Egyptian language, a king was called Ouro, which, with the 
article Pi prefixed (Coptice ; " the") becomes Pi-ouro " the king," 
to which has been traced the origin of the word Pharaoh : but I 
prefer the derivation indicated first by Wilkinson and perfected by 
Rosellini, whereby Pharaoh is derived from Phre, or Phrd, the 
god Sun. This deity was symbolized by \Z""\ the Hawk-headed 
god, surmounted by the solar disc, and sac ^T"red asp, holding 
the emblem of eternal life. The hawk w jf U§uas sacred to, and 
typical of the god Sun. Phre was also sy Vs] [mbolized by the 
image of the sun itself, as in the prenomen ■ ' ' ovals of Egyptian 
royal names, / N. the solar orb. Josephus tells us, that the word 
Pharaoh mef • Jant king ; and as the image of the Sun on earth ; 
anincarnatio >~-^n of solar dominion and benevolence ; the king 
of Egypt was symbolized, in the sacred character, by the " solar 



* By the way, the name of Moses \t/ f\ r\MSS, or Mcs, was strictly Egyptian. 
In signification, it means rebegotten, fy\ II II regenerated, initiated in the myste- 
ries. It is recognizable in other com III I * Ipound proper names, as Thotmcs, 
or Thothmoses, begotten of the god. III ' ' Thoth ; or in Ramescs, begotten of 
the god, Ra. The first sign of the three symbols above, M. is figurative of the dew and 
symbolic ofbaptism, in hieroglyphics : as the word Moses signifies in the Hebrew roots, 
MSCHE meaning saved, and MSCHHE anointed. Baptism, by fire and water, was 
one of the ceremonies that initiated the neophyte into the Egyptian mysteries. The 
Hebrew of Exodus ii. 10, means " saved by water," as well "saved from water." 
Artapanus, in his work concerning the Jews, says, that a queen of Egypt, having no 
children, adopted and '■ brought up a child of the Jews, and named it Mouses." Ma- 
netho, according to Josephus. speaking of the Exodus of the Israelites, states, "that 
the priest, who ordained their polity and laws, was of Heliopolis by birth, and his name 
was Osarsiph, from Osiris the god of Heliopolis : but that when he went over to these 
people, his name was changed, and he was called Mouses." Chajremon records, that 
the leaders of the Jews, when, (according to his statement) they were expelled from 
Egypt, "were two scribes called Mouses and Josephus, the latter of whom was a 
sacred scribe"— alluding probably to Aaron. Diodorus, Lysimachus, and I'olkmon 
confirm the name and the deeds of Mouses. 

1 1 have compiled this portion of my essay, chiefly from Sir J. G. Wilkinson's " Man- 
ners and Customs;" Portal " Symholesdes Egyptiens;" and " CouleursSymboliques; 
Dr. Lamb "on tlio Hebrew alphabet;" Cory's "Horus-opollo ;" and "Ancient 
Fragments." 



33 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



orb." In the Bible, this name of the kings of Egypt is, in the orig- 
inal Hebrew letters, spelt Phrdh ; rendered Pharaoh in our version, 
and corrupted into the sound of Fdyray-o. So strangely has this 
appropriate title of the monarch of Egypt deviated from its natural 
sound, and simple application, that at the present day, in Arabic, 
when one man calls another " Ya Pharaoon, ebn-Pharaoon," 
"thou Pharaoh, son of a Pharaoh," he fancies that he has heaped 
upon his head the ne-plus-ultra of opprobrium ! 

Every Pharaoh was the sun of Egypt ; and over his name bore 

• " Son of the Sun ;" and as the sun was Phrd, so each king 
was called Phrd in common parlance, as we say king. 
G^^^|Each monarch by law inherited his father's throne in lineal 
^^^; succession ; so that the incumbent was Phrd, son of Phrd, 
-* J literally " Sun, son of the Sun ;" as in the East, at present, 
the Ottoman Emperor is termed by the Arabs, Sooltdn, ebn Soolldn, 
emperor, son of an emperor. 

It is essential to observe, that the sun, or god Phrd, or Phre', was 
also more frequently written Re, or Ed. And, as Wilkinson re- 
marks, Phre is merely Re, with the article Pi prefixed, pronounced 
Pire, the Sun, in the Theban dialect, and Phre in the Memphitic. 

To the root Rd, Sun (the designatory title of a Pharaoh,) we may 
readily trace Ouro — royalty ; typified by the asp with his tail coiled 
under him. This symbol was, by the Greeks, termed Ouraios — 
OipaToa — /3a<ri\i<jico<7 — royal ; and is our Uraeus. Thus Rd and 
Ouro are embraced in the idea of the sun (the deity of the solar orb) 
and, in Hebrew, the name of the sun was 
from the same original root of Rd, Ouro 
Aur. 

In Egyptian mythology, Thme was the goddess of Truth and 
Justice. To indicate her strict impartiality, she is often represented, 
in her judicial capacity, with her eyes covered — thus : 

Thme — holding in her hand " eternal 
life ;" the feather of truth (an ostrich 
feather,) surmounts her cap ; her eyes 
are covered by a species of blinkers. 

(W_ 

Just as we copy the original Egyptian 
idea, when we paint Justice with her 
eyes bandaged. 



."11& Au/r 





The judges in Egypt, wore golden 
chains around their necks, to which was 
suspended a small figure of Thme, orna- 
mented with jewels; being Thme in hex 
double capacity of Justice and Truth. 
For, owing to the wise administration of 

,their laws, the denizens of the Nile could, 

with propriety, call their native land " the region of justice and 
truth," and "the country of purity and justice," in contradistinction 
to the irregular nomadic habits of the less civilized and barbarian 
nations of Africa and Asia, to them adjacent. 

Some of these judicial breastplates are extant in European mu- 
seums ; others are to be seen on the monuments, as 

containing the figures of two deities ; 
Rd, the sun ; and Thme. These, herein, 
represent the Rd, or the sun in a double 
capacity ; physical and intellectual light, 
and Thme, in a double capacity — -justice 
and truth. 

I have shown that, in Hebrew, the 
sun was called Aur; and, in the same language, truth is the word 
THME, integritas, d\fideia. Again, in Hebrew, the double capacity 
of anything is expressed by the dual number ; thus, the word 
Aur, becomes in the dual, Aurim. 
Thme, becomes in the dual, Thmim. 

Now turn to Exodus xxviii., 11 — speaking of the Ephod : " with 
the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet 
(that is, in symbolic, and not in alphabetic characters) shalt thou 
engrave the two stones," Idem xxviii. — " and they shall bind the 
breastplate by the rings (which, in verses 22 and 24, are said to be 
" wreathen chains of gold,") thereof unto the rings of the ephod with 
a lace of blue, that it may be above the curious girdle of the ephod, and 
that the breastplate be not loosed from the ephod." Idem xxix. — Aaron 
the high priest, is to wear the " breastplate of judgment upon his 
heart" — in the same manner as the Egyptian judges, who were all 
high priests, wore their breastplates — verse 30 — " and thou shalt put 
in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim ;" that is, 
as the commentator explains in the margin, " the lights and perfec- 
tions " — equivalent to the Egyptian double symbolic capacity of Rd, 
the sun or light ; and the double symbolical character of Thme or 
perfections. 

Are not the " symbols of the Egyptians similar to those of the 
Hebrews ?" Did not Moses, " learned in all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians," follow in the Aurim and Thmim of the Hebrew judicial 
breastplates, the symbolical method and long anterior types used by 
the Egyptian high priests ? Can we suppose this similarity to be 
the effect of chance ? Must we not attribute the identity to a com- 
mon primeval and sacred source, more remote than the establish- 
ment of either nation ? In both nations, none but the Arch Judges, 
and high priests, could wear the breastplate of lights and perfections. 



s word comes from 



But, by the application of symbolic colore, we can go deeper into 
the analogy ; which brings me to the second point of my closing 
passages. 

Blue, as may be seen throughout the xxviii chapter of Exodus, was 
a component principle in the mystical decorations of the Ephod. 
Blue, in Hebrew, was typified by a sapphire, a precious stone of a 
blue color, called S P H I R . This word comes from 
the root SPHR, which signifies,! 
in Hebrew, to write, to speak, to 
celebrate, as likewise a scribe, a 
writing, a book. 

The Old Testament is termed Sepher, the book, " par excellence ;" 
as the Muslim terms his Koran, the book, " El-Ketab ;" or as we 
say, the Scripture, for holy writ.* 

Blue the color, sapphire the stone, and all the varied meanings of 
the root SPHR, combine in the Book, as the Word of God, the 
wisdom of the Almighty, inclosed in the sacred Sepher of the Jews, 
the Old Testament. 

In Egypt, the god Amun, called by the Greeks and Romans, Jove, 
as a deified derivative of the mystic Jehovah — is lord of the gods of 
Egyptian mythology — and one of a Triad, (Amun, the male ; Maut, 
the female, and Khonso, the offspring,) whose combination ex- 
presses, " demiurge intellect, mother, and created things " — attri- 
butes of the true God. 

A M u N , in his usual form. On 

Egyptian monuments Amun is always 

painted (where in this cut he is repre- 

jj^lffiffiM seated black) of a blue color. His 

place in the scale of divine attributes is 

A/vV^Aindicated above. 

In Hebrew the word A M N 




}Y!i&x7WTiu/rt/ 



identical with the hieroglyphical name, 
meaning truth, wisdom ; and typified by 
the sapphire, t'he blue jewel, is the Word 
of God, inclosed in the Sepher, the Old 
Testament. 

The Egyptian hierogrammates wore 
on their breasts a sapphire, a blue stone, 
on which was engraven symbolically, 
like " a signet," the image of Thme in 
her double character, symbolical of 
Justice and Truth, identical in sound 
and meaning with the Hebrew word 
for justice and truth. The high priest 
of the Hebrews wore on his breast a 
blue stone, on which were symbolically 
(like "a signet") engraven words, 
identical with the Egyptian in signifi- 
cation, called Thmim or Thummim, 
the Two Truths ! 

This is a specimen of the application of symbolic colors to the 
elucidation of early mythes. It is proved beyond doubt, by Portal, 
that, from the remotest times, colors had a symbolical meaning ; and 
that remarkable analogies exist in regard to the mystical acceptation 
of every color, among the Persians, Indians, Chinese, Hebrews, 
Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, preserved during the middle ages 
of Christianity — the last relics of which remain to our day in 
Heraldry. 

The study of primitive arts and doctrines, whether in respect to 
the origin of writing, or to the sources of the Unity in Trinity, 
identical with the fountain springs of our sublimest conceptions, 
leads, by different roads, invariably to the same point, the common 
primeval origin of all things ; and attests that the God of Israel was 
the God of the Brahmans ; the God of the Chaldeans : as Champol- 
lion's discoveries enable us to hope, that, shrouded under the veil of 
the sanctuary, he was likewise the Deity of those who were initiated 
in the mysteries of the early Egyptians. 



CHAPTER FOURTH. 

The first of my three previous discourses contained a sketch of the 
rise and progress of hieroglyphical discovery — with bibliographical 
notices, and biographical digressions — whereby we have been able to 
form an idea of what has been published in Egyptian archaeology up 
to the close of 1841. The second was a brief inquiry into the origin 
of the art of writing. The third explained the construction of the an- 
cient language of the Egyptians — their mode of writing, and varied 



* Our word Bible itself originates in the same manner, from byblus, theGreek name 
for papyrus, the material out of which the first paper was made ; as in papyrus we find 
the root paper. The Latin name for a book was liber, derived from the name of the 
inner bark of trees, from which the Romans manufactured paper. Byblus, the plant, 
gave to the Greeks their name for paper, and paper their name for a book in T0 0t(3\ciov, 
The Scriptures were termed, by the early Greek Christians, "the Book," or To Bibleion; 
whence we obtain the name of Bible, which is exclusively applied to the Old and New 
Testaments, The root sepher, associated with learning and knowledge, may be traced 
into a great number of languages. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



33 



methods of expressing ideas; with some translations of hieroglyphi- 
cal legends of all ages, and various kinds, from the remotest discerni- 
ble post-diluvian period, down to the third century of the Christian 
era. 

I could wish that this my 4th discourse, should treat at once on the 
History of Egypt and of its venerable monarchs, as the numerous 
illustrations drawn from the monuments would have secured your 
attention ; while the application of hieroglyphical explanation to 
events coeval with, anterior, or subsequent to Abraham, Joseph and 
Moses, would have excited your curiosity and your interest. 

But reflection has convinced me, that before venturing to speak of 
times prior to the Pyramids, or contemporary with them : before 
launching into ages and occurrences attested by monumental chron- 
icles, belonging to periods positively (though in remoteness scarce 
definably) dating previously to the year 2000, B. C, it is better to 
examine some chronological questions. It will be conceded, were 
not such my course, that when I speak with all the certainty of con- 
scientious conviction of Egyptian events, dating, say between the 
years 2500 and 3000, B. C, or above 4000 years ago, some of my 
readers might reasonably imagine that I am thereby setting my face 
in direct opposition to the authority of Scripture. They would be 
startled, perhaps shocked, at my indiscretion ; and the writer would 
fall in public estimation, in proportion as the novelty of the doctrines 
advocated might clash with the individual preconception of the reader. 
Some would consult the chronological dates, appended generally to 
our version of the Bible ; and seeing it therein laid down, that the 
Deluge took place in the year 2348, B. C, they might, with apparent 
reason, consider that my assertions were false in basis, subversive of 
true belief, or injurious in tendency; were I not at the very outset of 
my discourse to show to them, that the chronology of Scripture is 
not a matter of indisputable accuracy, and particularly that the dates 
appended to our Bible, which are founded on the authority of Arch- 
bishop Usher, do not demand our implicit credence. 

There is nothing in my essays or lectures which militates with the 
most orthodox views of Holy Writ, and there is nothing further from 
my purpose than to give umbrage to any one, in free, but temperate 
and deferential inquiries. My observations will tend, on the contrary, 
to confirm Biblical authority; and, if at first sight my still-apprenticed 
method of introducing a subject, causes a momentary apprehension 
that I am departing from legitimate views, I am desirous that the 
results should be found conclusive and satisfactory. Consequently, 
if I do not take the Deluge at 2348, B. C, I am not differing from the 
Bible, but simply from Archbishop Usher. These are the reasons 
which induce me to preface Egyptian History by a brief chronologi- 
cal inquiry. 

When, some years ago, I amused my vacant hours by reading the 
different works that treated on Egyptian studies, I remember being 
struck with the incomprehensible discrepancy existing between the 
result of some of the new discoveries, and those systems which 1 had 
been taught at school. Believing at that time, that the dates appended 
to our Bible were certainties immutable as Scripture itself, I could 
not but feel apprehensive, that the existence of the pyramids looming 
like mountains in the distance from my window-seat, and the anti- 
quity insisted upon for them, might affect the truth of the Bible, and 
the veneration with which I had been taught to regard it. In the 
end, I was driven to examine and inquire for myself; and great was 
my surprise to find, that the date chosen by Usher for the Deluge, 
2348, B. C, was only one among some 300 opinions, all varying from 
each other in biblical chronology; and it was highly satisfactory to 
learn, that no point of Christian faith or doctrine would be prejudiced 
whether the creation of the world be taken at B. C. 5586, (which is 
the Septuagint computation) or at B. C. 3616, which is that of the 
Rabbi Lipman, upon the vulgar Jewish system. This fact to me 
being clear, I am desirous that those who may not have paid critical 
attention to these subjects, should arrive at the same conclusion. I 
have caused an abstract to be made of the table furnished by the 
learned Hales ; while for confirmation of what I am about to state, I 
refer to the erudite and conclusive work of that excellent and pious 
churchman. 

TABLE OF 
DIVERSITY OF CHRONOLOGICAL COMPUTATIONS. 

CREATION OF THE WORLD. 



BIBLICAL TEXTS AND VERSIONS. 






Yenrs 


Septuagint computation, 


before Christ, 


5586 


Septuagint Alexandrinus, 


tt 


" 


5508 


Septuagint Vatican, 


IE 


u 


5270 


Samaritan computation, 


tt 


" 


4427 


Samaritan Text, 


K 


tt 


4305 


Hebrew Text, 


tt 


tt 


4161 


English Bible, 


« 


tt 


4004 


JEWISH COMPUTATIONS. 








"J Playlair, 


tc 


tt 


5555 


T , I Jackson, 
Josephus. j. Haleg) 


It 


tt 
tt 


5481 
5402 


J Universal History 


fC 


tt 


4698 


Talmudists, 


If 


it 


5344 


Seder Olam Sutha, 


a 


it 


4359 



before Christ, 


4220 


a 
tt 


tt 

f 


4184 
4079 


tt 


tt 


3761 


tt 


tt 


3760 


€6 


it 


3751 


f( 


tt 


3616 


ti 


tt 


5624 


ft 


tt 


5411 


tt 


tt 


4830 


il 


(c 


4007 


tt 


tc 


4004 


tt 


tt 


4000 


tt 


ft 


3964 


ft 


tt 


3961 


tt 


tt 


3950 


tt 


tt 


3246 


ft 


tt 


2998 


tt 


t. 


2348 


tt 


ft 


2288 


ft 


tt 


3146 


ft 


a 


2104 


tt 


tt 


3155 


tt 


ft 


2348 


tt 


it 


2344 


tt 

ft 


t( 

tt 


1648 
1491 


tt 


tt 


1487 


" 


tt 


1312 



Jewish Computation, 

Idem. 
Chinese Jews, 
Some Talmudists, 
Vulgar Jewish computation, 
Seder Olam Rabba, great chronicle of the 

world, A. D. 130, 
Rabbi Lipman, 

CHRISTIAN DIVINES. 

Clemens Alexandrinus, A. D. 194, 
Hales, Rev. Dr. 

Origen, A.D. 230, 

Kennedy, Bedford, Ferguson, 

Usher, Lloyd, Calmet, 

Helvetius, Marsham, 

Melancthon, 

Luther, 

Scaliger, 

DELUGE. 
Septuagint version, 
Samaritan Text, 
English Bible, 
Hebrew text, 
Josephus, 

Vulgar Jewish computation, 
Hales, 
Usher, 
Calmet, 

EXODUS. 

Josephus, and Hales, 

Usher, and English Bible, 

Calmet, 

Vulgar Jewish chronology, 

Joining with the Rev. Doctor in his lament on the variety, dis- 
cordance and imperfection of chronological systems, I must not 
omit observing that the above is but an abstract of 12Q. different 
opinions on the epoch of the Creation, dating backward from the 
birth of Christ, to be found in his first volume, page 212. This list 
might be swelled to 300 distinct opinions on the same era. Between 
the highest epoch, B. C. 6984 years, (the Alphonsine tables,) a id the 
lowest, B. C 3616, (Rabbi Lipman,) there is a difference of 3268 
years ! 

For the epoch of the Deluge, he cites 16 opinions — Maximum 
B. C. 3248— minimum B. C. 2104— difference years, 1142. 

Out of 15 authorities quoted for the epoch of the Exodus of the 
Israelites from Egypt, the highest in chronological length makes it 
B. C. 1648— the lowest B. C. 1312— difference 336 years. 

Thus, for the three most important events recorded in the Old Tes- 
tament, i. e. the Creation, the Deluge and the Exodus, the inquirer 
after truth is lost in a chaos of 300 different, published human opin- 
ions on the eras of the same events ; opinions conflicting with each 
other ! But so uncertain is biblical chronology, that among 36 Chris, 
tian authorities, who have computed the epoch of the nativity of our 
Saviour, the year itself is a disputed point, and cannot be defined 
within 10 years ; so that, while all our present dates are dependent 
upon the birth of Christ for accuracy, we cannot say positively, whe- 
ther this year, which we term 1842, be 1837 or 1847. If the year 
be liable to doubt, how much more so must the day of the nativity? 
Our present Christmas day was not determined till the year 325 after 
our Saviour's birth, and then erroneously. Hales quotes Scaliger to 
the effect, that " to determine the day of Christ's birth belongs to 
God alone, not to man." All that can be positively averred is, that 
Christ was born about Autumn ; and most probably between 749 and 
750 years after the building of Rome. Yet -we are not much bene, 
fitted by this definition ; for, 34 chronologists assign six dates for the 
building of the Imperial city — maximum B. C. 753, minimum B. C. 
627 — giving a difference of 126 years for an event, which is here 
dependent on the implied accuracy of a date, that cannot itself be 
determined within 10 years. 

The date of the Jewish Exodus has to be computed backward 
from the building of Solomon's temple. If this were certain, many 
difficulties would be removed ; but, out of 19 dates for Solomon's 
temple, the longest is B. C. 741, the shortest B. C. 479 ; so that we 
cannot arrive at the truth within 262 years. In consequence of 
which enormous discrepancy, we cannot define the precise epoch of 
Moses ; nsr determine in Egyptian history under what particular 
Pharaoh the Israelites entered the wilderness ; although, within this 
space of 262 years, we know every Pharaoh who sat on the throne 
of Egypt. Could we find, in hieroglyphics, a record of the Jews, we 
should be able to determine this point ; but, although every known 
legend is at this day translated, no light has yet been gained on this 
point, notwithstanding the most rigid examination. I shall take up 
this question in its proper place. 

The same discrepancies are infinitely more conspicuous in profane 
chronology. The epoch of Sesostris, the greatest king of Egypt, 
was a dilemma in history. We had eight probable computations, 
B. C. 1555 to B. C. 967, differing 588 years; but the recent discov- 



94 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



eries in hieroglyphics have enabled us to define his epoch within a 
hundred years with certainty ; and, probably, within ten : of which, 
in due course. 

Siege of Troy : 26 dates— B. C. 1270 to B. C. 964— differing 
306 years ; besides some doubts, arising in part from other circum- 
stances, and in part from hieroglyphical facts, as to the occurrence 
of the event, or, at any rate, as to its historical importance. 

Nor for the overthrow of the mighty Nineveh, can we extricate our. 
selves from the confusion proceeding from 17 computations — B. C. 
896, and B. C. 596— a difference of 300 years. 

Finding it impossible to adjust, on any former systems of chrono- 
logy, the leading dates of sacred and profane history, the Rev. Dr. 
Hales undertook the herculean labor of erecting a chronological edi- 
fice, built upon more solid and more liberal ground. He investigated 
the evidences for and against the longer and shorter computations 
of the patriarchal generations from Adam to Abraham, founded on 
the Masorete Hebrew text, the Samaritan, the Septuagint, and on 
the Jewish chronicler Josephus ; and the result was, a conviction of 
the untenableness of the shortest or Hebrew computation. 

He discovered, that this discrepancy between the older translation 
of the Bible — the Greek, made about B. C. 250 — and the Hebrew 
copy of the Old Testament, proceeded from a manifest corruption of 
the text, by the Jews themselves, about the time of the Seder Olam 
Rabba, their great system of chronology in A. D. 130. The Hebrew 
Bible was corrupted by the Jews, to throw the early prophecies con- 
cerning the Messiah out of date. Yet it is the computation followed 
by Archbishop Usher, and has been attached to the English copy of 
the Scriptures by Act of Parliament. However, " Usher's date, at- 
tached to our English Bible, has been relinquished by the ablest 
chronologists of the present time, from its irreconcileableness with 
the rise of the primitive empires ; the Assyrian, Egyptian, Indian 
and Chinese, all suggesting earlier dates for the Deluge." And now 
that we can bring Egyptian positive annals, derived from writings on 
existing monuments, the chronology of the Hebrew version of the 
Bible is, in the opinion of the learned, altogether exploded. 

All these subjects have formed my studies, but I limit myself at 
present to generalities. I now proceed with my own special depart- 
ment of history, requesting the reader to keep in view the chronolo- 
gical table just cited, as an evidence that the impartial inquirer after 
truth cannot justly be blamed for errors on subjects wherein the texts 
of Scripture and the opinions of the learned theologists and pious 
Christian divines so widely differ. 



Till within the last few years, when, through the labors of the 
Hieroglyphists, we have been enabled to obtain not only faithful and 
authentic copies of most of Egypt's no longer mysterious legends, 
but translations of their import, we were left entirely dependent upon 
an incidental mention of Egypt in the Scriptures, or thrown upon 
facts, meagre in themselves, or dubious from their ambiguity, handed 
down to us by profane authors. 

The ignorance, as concerns Egypt, of the Greek and Roman wri- 
ters, was exceeded only by their love of the marvellous, or their often 
wilful disregard of truth. 

Floundering in doubts and among uncertainties, we had frequent 
assurance of their fallacies or misrepresentations, without, however, 
possessing any criterion by which to test their accuracy, or to dis- 
prove their assertions ; and, in our speculations into the early pro- 
gress of mankind, so wrapped in fables or shadowed with absurdity, 
were the pale rays of light discernible, that we were then reluctantly 
inclined to subscribe to the doctrine — " There is no evidence, but 
traditionary, of any fact whatever (the author probably means date) 
of profane history anterior to 600 years before the Christian era." 

On no country have so many pens been employed, as on Egypt. 
All mankind agreed, from the most ancient to the latest times, that 
no nation's history equalled in importance the Egyptian. And yet, 
so faint and partial was the amount of information to be collected 
from the records of ancient writers, and (until the promulgation of re- 
cent discoveries, since Champollion illumined the circumambient 
darkness) so unsatisfactory seemed the instruction derivable from at- 
tempts to lift the " veil of Isis ;" that Egypt was still a land of enig- 
mas, of impenetrable mysteries, where the lamp of inquiry shed no 
light to rescue her annals from accumu'ated gloom. 

My bibliographical sketch has shown, that on modern writers, with 
exceptions comparatively few, when we consider the ponderous tomes 
that fill the libraries of every nation of present times, wc can pass 
but little encomium. Often servile copyists of errors perpetuated by 
time and repetition, without being thereby divested of erroneousness, 
we might apply to many of those learned investigators, who thought 
their labors had enlightened us, the verse that was once made upon 
the charge of a celebrated judge to a jury in England : 
" Chief Justice Parker, 
He made that darker, 
Which was dark enough before !" 

The most authentic annals of Egyptian history, and the only cer- 
tain accounts we had of early Egyptian manners and customs, in- 
stitutions and systems, were derived from the Old Testament. But, 
excepting the period of the Exodus and the previous visit of Abraham, 
with the interesting events transpiring during the interval, we cannot, 
in •the Bible, expect to gather more than incidental and transitory refer- 



ences to subjects, on which we seek for information ; because the 
Pentateuch is a history of the early Hebrews, and touches on the 
Gentile nations, with whom they were brought into contact, only 
incidentully. 

The events dwelt upon by the Israelitish historian, may have been 
sometimes exceedingly important to the interests and welfare of the 
Jews, without always thereby requiring that they should be of equal 
consequence to the Egyptians. Nor must prejudice, or preconceived 
opinion continue to be flattered by deception, as to the relations be- 
tween the early Hebrews and a mighty and powerful monarchy like 
that of Egypt — whose conquests, prior to the Exodus as well as for 
many centuries subsequently to that period, had extended into Africa, 
further than a white man can penetrate at the present day ; whose 
garrisons held Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Asia 
Minor and other remote Asiatic nations in tribute, or in bondage ; 
and whose powerful sway had already been felt in Lybia and Barbary. 

From the Old Testament, as from Profane History, we could de- 
rive only a limited or partial view of the true greatness of the Pha- 
raohs ; and we had heard nothing from the Egyptians themselves, on 
events to them so momentous. 

But when, through the inestimable discoveries of hieroglyphical 
science we can read, translate, and understand the legends still 
sculptured, or delineated on Egypt's vast monuments, and decipher 
the written pages of her crumbling papyri, we are enabled to bring 
forward her history, a speaking and irrefragable witness of her glory. 

It is to vindicate the early fame of the Egyptians — to attest their 
wisdom, their power, and their boundless superiority to any of their 
contemporaries, that I venture now to present a brief, but, I believe, 
an approximatively-correct summary of Egyptian resuscitated annals. 

The records of Egypt, such as time and barbarism have spared, are 
of more positive antiquity, and of more positive authenticity, than 
any uninspired histories with which we are acquainted ; because, 
they were chiselled, painted, or written, at the time of the events to 
them contemporaneous. We can now behold, and, if we choose to 
study we can read for ourselves, those pages of history, that to the 
Greeks and Romans were dead-letters and incomprehensible mys- 
teries. 

Apart from the lamentably imperfect state, in which the monu- 
mental legends of Egypt have come down to us (mutilated by man, 
rather than Time,) the only doubts remaining in the minds of the 
hieroglyphical students, proceed rather from incidental vacuums in 
their own translation. Hence, errors have been frequently, and for 
some time will be committed ; but, as I shall explain, these, from 
their very nature, are of comparatively trifling moment. 

Already are we possessed of sufficient knowledge to ascertain with 
exactitude (so far as the translation is concerned,) the more important 
facts, or meaning of hieroglyphical legends ; and already may the hiero- 
glyphical student, like Alexander when the Indian Ocean presented an 
insurmountable barrier to his dreams of conquest, weep at the approach- 
ing want of materials, whereon to prosecute his researches. It is a 
sad, but too-excruciatingly accurate conviction in the minds of Cham- 
pollion's disciples, that, had all the hieroglyphic legends of ancient 
Egypt been preserved to us, we should now possess a complete, un- 
broken and authentic series of annals back to the remotest periods of 
conceivable post-diluvian time ; when the ancestors of the Hebrews 
were mere nomads in Aramanea ; when the Pelasgians were yet 
unborn ; the Greeks, the Persians, and perhaps the Phoenicians, had 
not been dreamed of; more than 15 centuries before Troy fell, and 
much " more than 1300 years before Solomon" founded the Temple 
of Jerusalem, till we should approach the early hour, when mankind 
dwelt together on the plains of Shinar. 

Even with the paucity of unimpaired records which have come 
down to us, it is not too much to assert, that, at the present moment, 
Egyptian archaBologists possess more positive knowledge of events 
and data, ages antecedent to Moses, than we can glean upon some 
most important questions, from histories of England, about circum- 
stances precedent to Alfred the Great or of France before Charle- 
magne ! 

With such astounding results, achieved, as I explained in my first 
chapter, through the Rosetta Stone ; a mutilated but invaluable 
triglyphic and bilingual - fragment in the British Museum ; when we 
recognize the thrilling interest that now invests the monuments of 
Egypt, and the enthusiastic ardor of Champollion's disciples, " our 
indignation must then be cast on those barbarian efforts, which convert 
the Monuments of Egypt, those sacred records of art and of anti- 
quity, into quarries, and destroy what they cannot equal. Day after 
day, plunder and mutilation are rooting up all that remains — another 
century, and what Egypt was will be a tale — wo to Egypt ! The 
"impure foreigner" (the descendant of the Scythian — the race termed 
on the monuments, the sore of Sheto,) whom she bound to her char- 
iots — trod beneath her sandals — and forced to excavate the temples 
of her gods — recklessly mocks and defaces the palaces of her kings 
and the tombs of her dead !" 

The monuments of Egypt, whereon are chiselled the glowing 
chapters of her history, presenting to us the records of events coeval 
with their erection, are, apart from the reverence due to inspiration, 
and the undoubted collateral testimony that demands our belief in 
Holy Writ, of interest next to the Bible in importance ; while, in 
authenticity of record (due allowance made for possible exaggera 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



35 



tion and a national vanity, with the evils of which every history, of 
every age on earth, is more or less pervaded,) these legends are as 
satisfactory as the Old Testament itself: because, the Pentateuch, 
though preserved by the hand of Providence, has not reached us in 
one single original copy, written at the time of the events' occur- 
rence ; and the text we make use of is acknowledged to be the result 
of varied and laborious comparisons, made and collated by learned 
divines of all nations and ages, from the most perfect editions ob- 
tainable at the several periods of their respective examinations, of 
the Masorete Hebrew, the Greek, Samaritan and other versions. 
The union in council of the highest Christian prelates, since the days 
of Constantine, has been at divers intervals required, to place the 
seal of confirmatory authenticity upon the originals, of which we 
possess only copies or translations. And that these last are not free 
from interpolations, misconstruction, or doubts, proceeding from am- 
biguities, or differences in their several originals, or from the errors 
and opinions of translators and commentators, cannot be denied. In 
fact, "sacred classics are no more exempt from various readings than 
profane." The differences, on comparing the masorete and Sama- 
ritan Hebrew texts, with that of the Septuagint, and the annals of 
Josephus, amount, in the generations of the antediluvian patriarchs 
to 600 years, and in the postdiluvian to 700: that is, to a discrepancy 
of 1300 years, solely between the era of the creation and the life 
of Abraham.' These differences, moreover, have not arisen from 
accident, but from premeditated design — and it is a superstition to 
suppose, that the Almighty is continuing a miracle, to prevent inter- 
polations or misconstruction in books, which, however sacred, are 
subject to the same casualties as others. These assertions are very 
easily supported ; and, in chronology, this is no mischievous innova- 
tion ; for I can produce the whole fabric of Church History in proof 
of the disagreement, among those most qualified to judge, Christian 

divines of all ages, from Clement of Alexandria, A. D. 194, 

down to Dr. Hales ; nor am I, in chronology, inclined to cry out with 
the Jew, "we will not recede from the usage of our forefathers." 

The legends of Egypt are exposed to the same errors of transla- 
tion ; and, in their present mutilated condition, are more liable to 
the same misinterpretations than are the Scriptures ; but, with this 
difference, that we are enabled to verify the Egyptian records in 
the original for ourselves, supposing we choose to consult them in the 
valley of the Nile, or in European collections, and that we acquire 
the necessary qualifications to forming a valid opinion. 

It is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile the mon- 
umental evidences of remote antiquity in Egypt — the pyramids for 
instance — with the chronology of Archbishop Usher — which is the 
one, generally received in Protestant communities — and is based 
upon the Masorete Hebrew version of the Old Testament ; and all 
attempts (and their name is Legion) to confine the chronology of 
Egypt to this unnecessary and spurious limit, must end in failure. 

The Hebrew Old Testament — termed the Masorete Text from 
" Masora," tradition — or, in common parlance, the Hebrcic verity- — 
was verified by the Hebrew rabbis, at some period between 840 and 
1030 after Christ. This copy is, by great theologians, maintained, 
not to be an exact transcript of the same original Law, from which the 
Septuagint was translated, B. C. 240. It is indisputable, that the 
Hebrew Scriptures, from which our translation of the Bible was made ; 
and, on the authority of which, Usher fixed the deluge at 2348 B.C. 
were altered curtailed, interpolated and mutilated by the Jews them- 
selves, about the beginning of the 2nd century after Christ: because, 
they then found " their own Scriptures " turned, by the Christians, into 
arms against themselves; and were confounded by the proofs, drawn 
from their own archives, that the Saviour's advent at the exact time 
lie appeared, was prophesied from patriarchal times in the ancient 
Hebrew text. The Rabbins cursed the day of the Septuagint trans- 
lation, and compared it to that " unhappy day for Israel," when the 
"Golden Calf was made." .That triple-apostate, Aquila, was prob- 
ably the instrument of the atrocious corruption of the sacred records, 
about A. C. 128. This controversy is to be found in all the Fathers ; 
and by all, save by Origen and Jerome, who acted under Judaic influ- 
ence, the interpolations were denounced. The computation of the 
Hebrew text, therefore, was rejected by the early Christians at its 
outset — revived, in the middle ages, by some Roman Catholic author- 
ities — adopted by Usher, and affixed to our Bible by act of Parlia- 
ment — analyzed and overthrown by Hales and other orthodox Pro- 
testant churchmen, and now placed beyond further question, by the 
unanswerable evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphical annals. 



Note I. — To show the incongruity of the Hebrew computalion in early 
patriarchal genealogies, I extract two out of the many remarkable dilemmas, 
in which the supporters of that chronology, such as Usher, are placed. 
ANTEDILUVIAN GENEALOGIES. 

In Genesis, we are told lliat Methuselah lived 969 years, that he was 187 
years old when he begat Lamech, and that Lamech at the age of 182 years 
begat Noah. Therefore if we sum up together the age of Lamech, when he 

begat Noah, years 182 

and the ago of Methuselah when he begat Lamech, . . . .187 

309 
We find that Methuselah was 369 years old when Noah was born. 

Now, as Methuselah lived 969 years, %9 

if we deduct his age at the period of Noah's birth, ' . . .369 

years 600 



it follows that Methuselah lived 600 years after this event. "We are also 
told lhat Noah entered the ark at the six hundredth year of his age. 

"It follows then, that when Noah entered the ark, Methuselah was still 
alive ; and as there is no mention of his having accompanied his grandson into 
the ark, Methuselah must have been drowned in the universal flood." 

Let the defenders of the chronology of the Hebrew text explain this cir- 
cumstance as well as they can, and reconcile it with the account which 
Moses thus gives in Genesis — Methuselah is thus drowned by act of Par- 
liament ! I am aware that this dilemma is supposed to be avoided by his 
conjectural decease in the last year before the flood. 
postdiluvian genealogies. 

If we are wedded to the Hebrew computation, "we mustadmit, that Abra- 
ham, the Father of the Faithful, who is described as dying," " in a good old 
age, and an old man full of years," expired thirty-five j'ears before Shem, 
who was born nearly a hundred years before the deluge, and nine generations 
before the son of Terah. 

We must believe Abraham contemporary with Noah for more than half a 
century, and with Shem during his whole life. 

We must believe, that Isaac was born only forty-two years after the death 
of Noah, and lhat he was contemporary with Shem for the period of 110 years; 
and, as not the slightest mention is made of any intercourse between Abra- 
ham and those venerable patriarchs who survived the deluge (Noah, Shem 
and others, who were miraculously preserved as the second progenitors of 
the human race,) we are forced to conclude that Abraham, the great refor- 
mer of religion, wandered about from country to country, "eilher ignorant of 
their existence, or regardless of their authority :" while, as Mizraim,theson 
of Ham, had not necessarily, or scripturally, departed from the pure prime- 
val religion of his father and grandfather, and as he colonized Egypt, per- 
haps sixty (if not more) years before the confusion of Babel, (on the primitive 
distribution of man in the days of Peleg) we must concede that the primitive 
Egyptians, children of Mizraim, were worshipping the pure God in Egypt, 
while Abraham's father, Terah, deified the log he had hewn into a Pagan 
idol! 

When, however, by the authority of the Septuagint, wc place the birth of 
Abraham at 1070 years after the flood, we are saved from these incongrui- 
ties ; and have a longer time for intervening Egyptian history, between the 
deluge and the visit of Abraham. 

The following legend of the Hebrews, which I extract from the "New 
World" of 11th of March, 1843, will show that Terah's idolatry is recognized 
at the present day by his descendants. It is the translation of a paragraph, 
in a work just published at Paris, for the use of the Israelitish youth, entitled 
" Les Matinees du Samedi, " by G. Ben. Levi. The tradition is current 
among the Cairo Jews to this day. 

Abraham and the Idols. — At the period, when the first cf our holy pa- 
triarchs lived, worship was offered to the images of men, of animals, of 
plants, and fantastical beings, carved of wood, sculptured of stone, or cast in 
metal, to which divine power was ascribed by ignorance and superstition. 

Terah, the father of Abraham, was himself a maker of Idols, and never- 
theless adored them, which was repugnant to the good sense of his son. One 
day, when Abraham was at home alone, an old man presented himself in the 
idol-warehouse of Terah, to buy one of ihem. " How old are you 1" asked 
Abraham, of the old man. "Eighty years." " How ! what '. you, who are 
so old, do you wish to worship an image that my fathers workmen made 
yesterday 1" The old man understood him, and reiired ashamed. 

A young woman succeeded him. She came to bring a dish of victuals as 
an offering to the idols of Terah. " They do not eat alone, (said Abraham 
to her,) try to make them take this food from your hands," and the young 
woman, having made the attempt without success, went away undeceived. 

Then Abraham broke all his father's idols, except one only, the largest, 
in whose hands he placed a hammer. When Terah, on returning, saw this 
havoc, he flew into a violent rage-; but his son said to him, " It is the large 
idol that has done this ; a good woman having come to bring your divinities 
something to eat, they fell greedily upon this offering, without asking leave 
of ihe largest and oldest of them. He was angiy, and has avenged himself 
by treating them in ibis manner." 

"You wish to deceive your father," replied Terah, full of wrath ; " do you 
not know that these images can neither speak nor eat, nor move in the least i 

"If it be so," cried Abraham, " why do you consider them as gods, and 
why do you compel me to worship them ?" 

Note 2. — To show tile carelessness, with which some chronologies are 
appended to our English Bible, 1 will refer to " Alexander's Stereotype Edi- 
tion" of the Old and New Testament. Philadelphia, 1839. See Index of 
that Bible, at the end, page 8. 

"In the beginning of the reign of Artaxerxes (called in profane history 
Cambyses) the Samaritans," &c. iSrc. 

This confusion of personages well known in history, is inexcusable. Cam- 
byses rei»ned 8 years, beginning B. C. 530. In the " Shah Nameh," he is 
probably " Lohrasp," his name in hieroglyphics, is "Kambeth," and we have 
hieroglyphical tablets of the 6th year of his reign. After Ihe Magians, who 

ruled^V months, Darius Hylaspes, succeeded him : and reigned 36 

years, of which we have dates of the 36th. This name, in hieroglyphics, is 
" Ntariush ;" as likewise in the cuneiform character ; in the Shah Nameh, ho 
is Gustasp, or Gushtap. Then followed Xerxes, son of Darius; in the arrow- 
headed (ancient Persian) form, thus written : 



o X* 



in Hierogyphics, 

■ 




ch r a e 

" Khchearchs," 




" Klisheersh." 

Hcreigned21 years — we possess a date, 12th year of his reign in Fgypt. 
In Persian tradition, "Isfendiar." Then came Axtaxerxes Lonjfim 
in hieroglyphics, " Artaksheersh ;" in Persian," Ardisheer Dirasdost;" he 
reigned '10 years. We have hieroglyphical dales of 16th of his reign. 

Thus, thin, instead of the nonsense, that Cambyses and Artaxerxas are 
one and the same personage (!) they are separated by a period of • n 
and two intervening reigns: and, from the beginning of the rule of tke I 



30 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



to the end of the reign of the latter, the hierologists account 100 years and 
7 months. 

I quote this merely as a proof of (he advantage that chronologists may de- 
rive from Egyptian history and hicroglyphical studies. 



The Samaritan Pentateuch — is also a corrupt text, in regard to 
the antediluvian generations ; and its first mutilations may have ex. 
isted before A. D. 230 : but, after that, it was subjected to greater cor- 
ruption, for then, the post-diluvian generations were curtailed. It 
was undoubtedly, at first, an exact transcript of the original law — 
a copy of the archives having been furnished by the Jews to the Sa- 
maritans, shortly before the fall of Jerusalem, in A. D. 70, when it 
would necessarily have agreed with the Septuagint. Its manifest 
anachronisms were introduced subsequently, from the same motives 
which prompted the Rabbies to alter the text of that volume, which 
was hypocritically termedso sacred, that " every letter was counted!" 
It was counted, however, after the interpolations had been made. 

The Seftuagint, or translation by seventy learned men, who, 
in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B. C. 240, rendered the He- 
brew Scriptures (at the time not mutilated) into Greek, at the Isle 
of Pharos, Alexandria. 

It was recognized as orthodox by the Jews, for 300 years ; and all 
its parts were publicly verified, and collated by Jews and Greeks. 
It was a faithful translation, of the copy of the Law, sent by the 
Hign Priest of Israel to Philadelphus, at the latter's solicitation, in 
return for his liberation of 100,000 Jews from bondage. This He- 
brew copy came from Jerusalem to Alexandria, written on parch- 
ment, in letters of gold. 

The Rabbies disputed its authority, about 100 years after the birth 
of Christ. " Wherefore," we may say with Syncellus, " it is with 
reason, that, in our chronology, we follow the version of the Septua- 
gint, which was made, as it appears, from 4 an ancient and uncor- 
rupted Hebrew copy." The Septuagint is not free from interpolation 
being subject to the same casualties to which all books are liable ; 
and the most remarkable is that of the second Cainan, between Ar- 
phaxad and Salah, of 130 years. This spurious personage was in- 
troduced into the Septuagint, about the time of Demetrius, 220, B. 
C.| or about 20 years after the first publication of the pure uncor- 
rupted Greek translation of the Old Testament. 

Next in authority to the Septuagint, on chronological points, ranks 
the Jewish chronologist, Josephus ; and the one confirms the other. 

Let us rejoice, therefore, that the Septuagint version allows of 
more enlarged, liberal and equally orthodox constructions, confirmed 
by the authority of Josephus, and by the traditionary fragments of 
the Persians, Hindoos, Chinese and Phoenicians, independent of the 
absolute necessity of receiving, in addition to all these, the positive 
confirmations now elicited from Egyptian legends. 

The chronology of the Bible, being a human computation, is not 
an article of indispensable faith ; for it should be borne in mind, that 
no two persons, who have entered upon a chronological inquiry, 
founded on an examination of the sacred Scriptures, agree in compu- 
tation, or (not unfrequently,) as to the meaning of the texts they con- 
sult ; whence endless discrepancies in their conclusions. The con- 
sequence of these controversies is made apparent, by the Table refer- 
red to ; and we must remember, that, by different chronologists, of all 
ages, religions and nations, and, among them, many of the most eru- 
dite and pious divines, or Christian philosophers (such as Sir Isaac 
Newton,) there have been put forth some 300 systems of chro- 
nology chiefly founded on biblical records, all differing in the dates 
assigned to the. Creation, the Deluge, the Exodus, and other events, of 
which the occurrence is indisputable ; though the period of the oc- 
currence of each may perhaps for ever remain an open question. 

If therefore, in arriving reluctantly at the inference, that the Holy 
Records themselves are, in chronology, deficient in precision and 
perspicuity, we arc forced to select for ourselves, that view of the 
subject which best accords with our peculiar opinions : so long as 
we demand no extension that is not sanctioned by some high bib- 
lical authority, we are not obnoxious to the charge of heresy (though 
heresy may be obnoxious to us,) because, it is not with the Scrip, 
tures, but with the covimentators on the Scriptures (men like our- 
selves, liable to err) that we differ. 

So far as the epoch of the Deluge is concerned, it is speculative, 
and not achievable by any process hitherto attempted, within 1300 
years. But, the most critical examination establishes for the pyra- 
mids of Egypt, and for " Shoopho," builder of the largest, an an- 
tiquity,, totally incompatible with the short chronology of Usher, 
founded on the Masorcte Hebrew text, and demands for them the 
more extended, and equally if not more orthodox readings of the 
Septuagint version. These pyramids were built; and " Shoopho" 
ruled, before Usher's date of the Deluge, the year 2348, B. C. ; and 
thip fact once admitted, it is not inconsistent with- the deference due 
to Holy Writ, to seek for an explanation, and thereby to silence 
scepticism. 

It is satisfactory to be able to prove, that there is nothing required 
by Egyptian antiquities, that can affect the truth of Scripture, or that 
is so boundless, as to subvert the text of the Bible. 

If, through the errors of man, his misconceptions and perversions, 
we differ in opinion with an individual on the period of the Deluge, 
that difference will not affect the fact of its occurrence. 



If we show positively that Usher was wrong, as others have donB 
by different arguments, when he chose the Hebrew text, instead of 
older, purer and more orthodox versions of the Old Testament, our 
difference is not with Scripture, but with Archbishop Usher, on a 
subject whereon his is only one of 300 opinions, and on which it is 
a sacred right of every human being to have an opinion, and in that 
to be guided, after adequate examination, by his own conscientious 
belief. When we point out that Usher was wrong infixing the Del- 
uge at B. C. 2348 ; that he was in an error in not giving due weight 
to the other versions of the Scripture, as other equally pious divines, 
and equally erudite scholars have done, we are entitled to entertain, 
and to express our opinion, just as freely as he was authorized to pub. 
lish his. Nor can an act of Parliament, or of Congress, render one 
opinion more reasonable than another. 

Our proving that the Pyramids were built before Usher's era of the 
Deluge, will establish nothing beyond the fact that he was mistaken , 
nor can the opinion of either of us affect the true epoch of the 
event, or the fact of its occurrence. It would be ridiculous to sup. 
pose the pyramids to have actually been erected before the Deluge ; 
and as we. find they positively exisited in B. C. 2348, it stands to 
reason, that the Deluge must have occurred many centuries before 
them. 

When, however, we are compelled to overstep, even by one day, 
the year in which Usher fixes the era of the Deluge, we may as well 
go back to any epoch, that we can show to be admissible by two of 
the three versions of the Old Testament, of which he only adopted 
one ; and it is a source of peculiar gratification to find, that the Del- 
uge, upon the authority of Christian churchmen, can be carried back 
to a date, that causes no doubt as to the validity of the uncorrupted 
Mosaic record ; and that if it be placed anywhere, beyond 3000, B. 
C. (for Providence seems to have designed that man should not be 
able to discover the precise period of the event,) there is nothing in 
Egyptian monumental history, that will not corroborate the sacred 
word, though some facts may trench on mere human opinions in re- 
lation thereto. 

Taking the Deluge at any given point within the chronology of 
the Septuagint — say B. C. 3200, and " Menei," the first Pharoah of 
Egypt, about 2700, we allow 500 years for the migration of man 
into Egypt and his progress toward civilization, till he could build 
one pyramid. In allowing 500 years more for the erection of all 
those pyramids at Meroe, in Ethiopia, and in Egypt, we have sufficient 
time for their possible construction ; and then, taking up the acces- 
sion of the 16th dynasty at about B. C. 2272, we adopt Rosellini's 
chronological series, and have time for all subsequent events in 
Egypt. This is but approximative of the truth. My department is 
Egyptian history ; and, in rejecting Usher's chronological system 
in toto, I accept the Septuagint date for the Deluge only — because, 
for all subsequent epochs, I consider myself free to choose (from 
among three hundred systems of chronology) that arrangement 
best adapted to Egyptian monumental, and other records. I com- 
mit myself therefore only to the Septuagint date of the Deluge, 
as the shortest limit allowable for Egyptian history, independently 
of all other nations ; while I reserve the right of adopting any ex- 
tension, that future discoveries may make orthodox, or indispensable. 
As it is, we have not a year to throw away — and if 1000 more 
years could be shown admissible by Scripture, there is nothing in 
Egypt, that would not be found to agree with the extension. 

The Septuagint era of the Flood is equally necessary for the his- 
tory of mankind in other countries. The events and histories of 
other nations demand an equal chronological extension — all require, 
that time should be allowed for human multiplication and distribn- 
tion. We will not speculate on the possible time required, if we 
are to trace the progress of civilization, from a hunter to a shepherd, 
from a shepherd to an agriculturalist, and a manufacturer, till man 
could build a pyramid, such as any of those at Memphis, or in- 
scribe in the largest the name of " Shoopho." I have already ex- 
pressed my conviction, that the art of writing is a divine revelation, 
in antediluvian periods ; and I incline to the belief, that man was not 
turned upon the earth an uncivilized savage, but that his Creator en- 
dowed him with a certain intuitive knowledge in arts and sciences, 
which practice could improve, or negligence deteriorate. But still, 
ages must have elapsed before the conception of such an enterprise 
as a pyramid, could have entered the human brain ; and both abund- 
ant population and long practical experience, in an infinitude of arts 
and sciences, must have been for centuries in operation, before 
Shoopho, who is Cheops and Suphis, could erect the largest of these 
monuments in Egypt — before, in Chaldea, a knowledge of astronomy 
could be acquired, to record calculations as far back as 2232 B. C. — 
before, in China, Yao could rectify the year in B. C. 2269 — before, 
in Greece, jEgialus could found the city of Sicyon, in B. C. 2089 — 
before Nimrod could found Babylon, in B. C. 2554 — or Ashur's sons 
have settled at Nineveh — or before, in Indian records, a Sanscrit his. 
tory should evince high civilization 2000 years B. C. ! I will say 
nothing, at present, about the incongruity of these statistical calcu- 
lations, that would people the world, like Dr. Cumberland, Bishop 
of Petersborcugh, with 30,000 human beings, in the 140th year after 
the flood (!) whereby, in the 3rd century, there would have beer 
6,666,666,660 married people ! We have only to add the moderate 
average of 2 children to each marriage, and, in the year 340 after 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



37 



the Deluge, according to this absurd doctrine, the world must have 
contained twenty thousand millions of human beings ! whereas, after 
more than 5000 years, we only reckon, at the present day, between 
900 and 1000 millions of inhabitants on the earth. Noah left the 
ark with his family — in all 8 individuals — and, making every allow- 
ance, it must have taken 130 years to increase that community to 
about 1000 persons. ' How many centuries must have passed away 
ere the world could have been sufficiently populated (to say nothing 
of its civilization) to bring about any of the great events above re- 
ferred to in Egypt, Chaldea, China, Greece, Assyria and India ? 

If we now know more of Egyptian history, than we do of that of 
any contemporary nation in those remote epochs, it is not that other 
nations were not in existence, but because their records have per- 
ished in the lapse of time — for which loss, the wisdom and the fore- 
thought of the superior Egyptian civilization, have, in some degree, 
given us a compensation. I have, in a previous discourse, sketched 
the modes in which the venerable annals of other nations have been 
swept away, leaving us to mourn over their irrecoverable loss. 

Finally, Sir Walter Raleigh, nearly 300 years ago, (after instancing 
the nations that had already attained to greatness in the days of Abra- 
ham, and little foreseeing the remote antiquity, that, in the year 1843, 
can be insisted upon for Egypt, which places " Menei " at least 800 
years before Abraham's visit to Egypt — according to the Hebrew text 
computation,) remarked, " If we advisedly consider the state and 
countenance of the world, such as it was in Abraham's time, yea, 
before his birth, we shall find, that it were very ill done, by following 
opinion, without the guide of reason, to pare the times over deeply 
between the flood and Abraham ! because, in cutting them too near 
the quick, the reputation of the whole story might perchance bleed." 
In that which such a man, as the ill-fated Raleigh had penned, and 
which so excellent a divine as Dr. Hales had endorsed, before the 
hieroglyphic chronicles of Egypt were deciphered, I may safely con- 
cur — acquainted, as I consider myself to be, with Egyptian subjects. 
Truly did the poet Campbell, in his beautiful address to a mummy, 
in Belzoni's collection, thus apostrophize the fragile relic' of a once 
noble being : . 

"Antiquity appears to have begun, 
Long after thy primeval race was run." 

In order, therefore, that I may convey no erroneous impressions, 
I have prefaced Egyptian history by this chronological disquisition ; 
and it may be fearlessly maintained, without deserving the charge of 
heterodoxy, that, in rejecting the short chronology of the Hebrew 
texts of the Pentateuch (wherein by Archbishop Usher's computation 
the creation of the world is fixed at 4004 B. C. and the deluge at 
2348,) as inapplicable to, and overthrown by, the positive facts of 
hieroglyphical researches, we do not affect the validity of scriptural 
record ; because, the Septuagint version and the venerable array of 
orthodox churchmen, who support the latter's computation, permit 
us to place the deluge somewhere about 3200 B. C. — by which ar-' 
rangement we attain a period of 32 centuries, and one that gives us 
"ample room and verge enough " to reconstruct the history of ancient 
Egypt, founded upon the results of hieroglyphical interpretations, and 
corroborated by authorities, sacred and profane. 

It is on this basis, that the annals of Egypt will be herein consid- 
ered — one that allows abundance of room for the events which occu- 
pied the several branches of the human family, between the Deluge 
of Noah, the primitive migration of man in the days of Peleg, with 
the subsequent dispersion of mankind from the plains of Shinar, and 
the accession of the first Caucasian monarch to the undivided throne 
of Egypt, Menes of History, and Menei, " who walks with Amun," 
of the sculptures ; and although unable, with satisfac- 
tory precision, to define within a period of jive hundred 
years, the date of his assuming the exclusive sway of 
Upper and Lower Egypt, the countries typified by the 
I Lotus, and the Papyrus, the " region of justice and 

B purity" the " land of the Sycamore," yet various cor- 

K^\y roborative circumstances will justify the hypothesis, 
" " that his reign began at some period between the years 

U n e r 290 ° and 2400 B- c ' 

Having stated the scriptural grounds upon which the antiquity I 
shall unfold for Egypt is based, it becomes necessary, before com- 
mencing the history of that country, on a scale so generally novel as 
will by me be adopted, to give a succint enumeration of the principal 
profane chroniclers, upon which the historical portion of the edifice 
is reconstructed. To omit doing so, would defeat the object of these 
discourses, which is to give a popular view of subjects, hitherto han- 
dled only by the most erudite scholars. I shall therefore name Manetho, 
Eratosthenes, Josephus, Herodotus, and Diodorus, as the most ancient 
writers on Egyptian History. I have placed them in the order hi 
which hieroglyphical discoveries, and with me, long practical Egyp- 
tian associations have combined to give them authenticity and value. 
To these, the other and later Greek and Roman writers, such as 
Strabo, Tacitus, Plutarch, Pausanias, Pliny, &c, are subordinate, 
though frequently of eminent value and assistance. The later works 
of Christian chronologists, such as Syncellus, Eusebius, with a host of 
others, are often important ; and it may be presumed I have not 
omitted to consult them and others, either when the originals were 
within my attainment, or far more frequently, when in the course of 




reading the works of the Champollion school, I have met with pas. 
sages extracted by modern classics, which their superior learning 
enabled them to produce. It is only on the previous five, however, 
that I deem it necessary to make some remarks. The translations of 
these are accessible in every library; but for the few precious relics 
preserved to our day of Manetho and Eratosthenes, I refer to " Cory's 
Ancient Fragments," as the hieroglyphist's historical text-book. To 
proceed further would be to write on bibliography, which, though a 
most interesting subject is one above my present attainment ; and I 
will conclude with this general observation, that the authors through 
whose imperfect records we have been able to glean historical frag- 
ments of remote Egyptian ages, and to whom 20 vears ago, we were 
indebted for all we then knew on these abstruse questions, are various 
in nation, in epoch, in merit, and in importance. Apart from the 
Scriptures, which do not touch on Egyptian internal events before 
Abraham, (a period long subsequent to the occurrences on which we 
shall have first to treat) we had so many contradictory annals, that it 
seemed hopeless to arrive at any reasonable conclusion, from mere 
historical narratives. The discovery of the key to hieroglyphics has 
enabled us to discriminate ; and our first authority in Egyptian chron. 
icles after the monuments, is Manetho. 

Among the manifold advantages, since 1820, accruing to general 
knowledge through the impetus given to all studies, and antiquarian 
researches, by Champollion and his school, may be enumerated the 
resuscitation of historical fragments, and the collection and re-trans, 
lation of early authors, whose boons till within the last 20 years were 
looked upon with distrust, and whose accounts were treated as fables. 
And besides the excessive value in Egyptian Archaeology that now ac- 
companies fragments, such as Horus-Apollo, Hermapion, Pcemander, 
Apuleius, and other obsolete writers too numerous for specification ; 
the intense interest excited by hieroglyphical discoveries has caused 
new and more faithful transcriptions of the remains of such early 
chroniclers as Sanconiathon, Manetho, Bcrosus, &c. to be made and 
republished. These, and similar sacred historical relics are now 
within the attainment of the general reader, which, before hieroglyphi. 
cal researches had demonstrated their utility, were to those as un. 
learned as myself, so. many sealed books. 

One of the most gifted men and celebrated scholars of the present 
age, with whom I was for a long period on terms of social intimacy, 
told me, while we were one day repining at the errors and misdirec- 
tions of my school-boy, and his collegiate education, that on leaving 
the University of Oxford, he was immediately thrown into literary 
and scientific society in London. He was there struck with amaze, 
ment and chagrin, at the constant recurrence of topics of conversation, 
on the most interesting and important subjects, but which to him, 
who had won the first honors of Oxford, were mysteries he could not 
comprehend ; and so ill-provided was he at the age of 22, with general 
information, that on hearing the name of Linnaeus, (the well-known 
naturalist) he thought he was some mythological personage, whose 
najne had escaped him, and actually looked into " Lempriere's Clas. 
sical Dictionary" to ascertain who he was ! 

In the same manner, I can well remember the period, long after 
I had left a classical school, and had for years been engaged in active 
life, when the only knowledge I possessed of Manetho, was derived 
from the " Vicar of Wakefield," wherein Mr. Jenkinson, in treating 
on the cosmogony of the world, mentions Sanconiathon, Manetho and 
Berosus. I may therefore be allowed to inform others who the author 
is, on whom so much stress is laid, and whose authority in Egyptian 
history is now considered of such importance, referring them, at the 
same time, to " Cory's Ancient Fragments," for all that we possess of 
his once voluminous works, bearing on the points under consideration. 

Manetho, was a learned Egyptian — a native of the Sebennitic 
Nome in the Eastern Delta, Lower Egypt — high priest, and sacred 
scribe of Heliopolis, who flourished about the year 2G0, B. C, and who 
at the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus, composed a history of the 
kings of Egypt, in the Greek language, from the earliest times down 
to Alexander's invasion, B. C. 332. This work he dedicated to Phila- 
delphus, with the following letter: 

" The Epistle of Manetho, the Scbennyte, to Ptolemteus Phila- 
delphus : 

"To the great and august king Ptolcmaeus, Manetho, the high priest 
and scribe of the sacred Adyta in Egypt, being by birth a Scbennyte, 
and a citizen of Heliopolis, to his sovereign Ptolemseus, humbly 
greeting : 

" It is right for us, most mighty king, to pay attention to all things 
which it is your pleasure wo should take into consideration. In 
answer, therefore, to your inquiries, concerning the things winch shaJl 
come to pass in the world, I shall, according to your commands, ify 
before you what I have gathered from the sacred books written by 
Hermes Trismegistus, our forefather. Farewell, my prince and sove- 
reign." 

It is very curious, that Manetho, besides giving a compendious 
history of the past, appears to have also furnished to Ptolemy some 
extracts of early prophecies concerning the future. These last, 
however, are lost to us, and it is of no use to speculate about them. 

The history was compiled from the most ancient and authentic 
sources, by an Egyptian, whose position and learning, aided by the 
influence of the government, enabled him to obtain accurate inform- 
ation. The sacred incriptions on the columns of Hermes, and the 



38 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



books of Thoth-trismegistus, seem to have been his sources ; while 
we may infer, that the celebrated Library of Alexandria, the papyri 
of the sacerdotal order, the sculptures on the temples and the genea- 
logical tablets (some of which have come down to us,) were con- 
sulted by him, and afforded him abundance of materials. 

This great work has been lost ; and the rediscovery of one copy of 
Manetho would be the most desirable and satisfactory event that could 
be conceived in Egyptian, and we may add, in universal history and 
chronology. As the work of an Egyptian, testifying the glory of his 
nation, it was probably conscientiously prepared ; although he may 
have allowed national pride to give a too partial coloring to his nar- 
ration, and possibly an exaggerated view of his country's antiquity. 
But we can no longer be harsh in our criticisms ; seeing, that to his 
16th Dvn. he is confirmed by the sculptures, while every new step 
of discovery that is made in hieroglyphics, gives some new confirm- 
atory light in support of Manetho's earlier arrangement. Again, 
because we have only mutilated extracts of his original ; one, a 
fragment preseved by Joscphus, which seems to have been copied 
verbatim from Manetho's work ; another is an abstract in the chro- 
nology of Syncellus, who did not even see the original book himself, 
but embodied in his compilation the extracts he found in Julius Afri- 
canus and Eusebius. Within the last few years, the discovery of an 
Armenian version of Eusebius, has added some better readings to 
those we formerly possessed. 

These writers, Josephus, Eusebius and Julius Africanus, differ so 
much from each other in the several portions of Manetho's history 
of which they present the extracts, that, in their time, either great 
errors had crept into the then-existing copies of Manetho, or one or 
more of them were corrupted by design ; especially in the instance 
of Eusebius, who evidently suppressed some parts, and mutilated 
others, to make Manetho, by a pious fraud, conform to his own 
peculiar and contracted system of cosmogony. 

It will be seen how the hieroglyphics enable us to discriminate error 
from truth, and to recompose and correct Manetho. The indefati- 
gable Cory has rendered Manetho easy of access ; and it is due to the 
learned Prichard, to point him out as the one who vindicated Mane- 
tho's claim to our credence in 1819, before Champollion's discoveries, 
no less than as one who proved that many ancient authors, whom 
modern scepticism had rejected, were, in their annals, not undeserv- 
ing of belief. It is to be regretted, that Prichard in his more recent, 
work on ethnology and the human species, does not give due weight 
to the discoveries of the Champollion school on ancient Egyptian 
subjects ; nor is he by any means correctly informed on modern ones : 
but this vacuum is now about to be filled up with a mass of anatom- 
ical, geographical, historical and monumental evidences in the "Cra- 
nia jEgyptiaca" of Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia. 

Manetho is herein regarded as the authority, par excellence ; with- 
out, however, pretending to claim for the length of his reigns undue 
credence, or to tax him with errors that proceed from his copyists 
rather than from himself; especially, when the "Old Chronicle " 
preserved by Syncellus was evidently known to and consulted by 
him. In a subsequent chapter I present a table of his Egyptian Dy- 
nasties, which I shall explain in due course ; and would only observe, 
that those figures in smaller type are doubtful, and that there are 
plausible reasons to reduce the period from the 1st to the end of the 
15th Dynasty to 443 years, as I have noted in the relative column. 

Eratosthenes of Cyrene, the grammarian, mathematician, astro- 
nomer and geographer, was superintendent of the Alexandria Library 
in the reign of Ptolemy Evergetes, and lived about 200 B. C, or 60 
years after Manetho. It appears he constructed his Laterculus, or 
catalogue of Egyptian kings, by order of Ptolemy, from Egyptian 
records and from information communicated to him by the sacred 
scribes of Diospolis — Thebes. 

The original work has perished ; and the only portion extant is a 
fragment preserved by the diligent compiler Syncellus, from an ex- 
tract he found in the chronography of Apollodorus, whose work no 
longer exists. As his Laterculus gives the translations of some of 
the Egyptian names of kings, it has been found useful : but inasmuch 
as it appears he wrote with a predetermination to cast the labors of 
his predecessor Manetho into disrepute, and as the latter is infinitely 
more conformable to the sculptures, the catalogue of Eratosthenes 
holds but a subordinate station ; while we cannot forget the witty 
remark of Hipparchus, that Eratosthenes " wrote mathematically 
about geography, and geographically about mathematics." 

With the fact staring us in the face, that Manetho, in names, in 
times and in number of kings, has been so remarkably confirmed 
up to the 16th Dynasty by the monuments, we need not lay much 
stress on the discrepancies of Eratosthenes. It may well be con- 
ceded, that a learned Egyptian, who composed, by order of his king, 
a record of his own nation in the Greek language, from the most 
authentic sources, was less liable to err, as well as more likely to 
obtain correct information, than a foreigner, who may have spoken, 
read .and wrote (but probably did not) in the Egyptian language. 
And, with the constant evidence of Greek mendacity and utter igno- 
rance in Egyptian matters before our eyes, we may make due allow- 
ance for the envy and jealousy of a Hellene, at the antiquity of a 
country, which was already ancient long ere the fathers of the Greeks 
were known in history. 

Josephus is the well known Jewish historian, who wrote at Rome, 
Boon after the fall of Jerusalem. As before stated, his chronology, 



according with the Septuagint, renders him valuable for dates ; while 
we are indebted to his defence against Apion, for some fragments 
of Manetho's history, that are of the utmost importance. 

The works of Herodotus and Diodorus are too familiar to general 
readers, to require much more than designation. The former was 
in Egypt about 430 years B. C, during the dominion of the Persians, 
and after Egypt had fallen entirely from her pristine greatness. The 
latter was in Egypt in 40 B. C, toward the close of the Ptolemaic 
Dynasty, at a still lower period of degradation. 

Valuable, as are the works of these two Greek authors, they have 
fallen very considerably in our estimation, since Egypt as a country, 
and the ancient Egyptians as a people have become better known to 
us ;and the inconsistencies, misstatements, misrepresentations, mis- 
conceptions and absurdities, that are hourly exposed in their accounts 
■of Egypt, more than compensate for the information, in which, by 
accident, they are correct. This assertion may seem audac-ious ; 
but will be substantiated in the sequel, when a comparison is insti- 
tuted between Egyptian history, as developed in these chapters and 
future lectures, and the accounts of Herodotus or Diodorus. 

It would require a volume to elucidate the discrepancies, now de- 
monstrable, between many, nay most of the assertions of Herodotus 
and Diodorus, in regard to almost every subject relating to ancient 
Egypt; and the facts, with which we are made acquainted, in the 
works of the whole Champollion school. Nor, in common fairness, 
must my assertions be doubted, until an antagonist shall have actually 
verified in Champollion, Rosellini and Wilkinson, some of the points 
in which Greek authors are shown to be so lamentably ignorant. I 
will, however, add the following reasons, gleaned chiefly from long 
personal acquaintance with Egypt, to show that it was not in the na- 
ture of things that Herodotus or Diodorus could be often correct. 

In the first place, Herodotus, though a learned and highly respect- 
able Greek,' and who, as the greatest of their ancient travellers and 
universal historians, deserves our respect and gratitude, was in Egypt, 
a stranger. He was certainly not in literary, or scientific, or fash- 
ionable, or aristocratic society in that country ; which he visited, after 
intercourse with the Greeks, and the Persian conquest had ruined 
the former greatness of the higher castes, and had corrupted the in- 
habitants of Lower Egypt, with whom Herodotus chiefly mixed. 
For his own sake, we must hope he did not (although he says he did, 
as far as the first cataract), visit Upper Egypt, else he would not have 
left Thebes undescribed; or have listened to the idle tale, that the 
sources of the Nile were at Elephantine ! 

In his day, 500 years of decline had deteriorated the Priest-caste, 
the only depositaries of history in Egypt. As a foreigner, Herodotus 
was looked upon by the sinking aristocracy of Egypt in the light of 
an " impure gentile ;" and utterly ignorant of the language, he must 
have gleaned all his information through an interpreter. If, as we 
have a full right to do, we judge of Herodotus"s interpreter by those 
of travellers in modern times, the result with respect to the sort of 
information he could receive through such a medium, may well be 
imagined. Nay, it is proved, by his mistakes upon almost every 
Egyptian subject which he handles in Euterpe. 

Like some English and other modern writers, who compose vol- 
umes on that misrepresented country, that are like Hodges' razors, 
only made to sell, Herodotus prepared his work to read at the Olym- 
pic games to a Grecian audience, more ignorant in those days on 
Egyptian affairs, than even Europeans of modern times are generally; 
and it was necessary to interlard his discourse with occasional fabri- 
cations, some of which will scarcely bear the dubious praise of " Se 
non e vero, e ben trovato." 

Diodorus was in Egypt just before the downfall of the house of 
Lagus, inB. C. 40, when the decline of Egyptian learning had been 
going on for 700 years — 400 of which had been spent under the yoke 
of foreign masters. Diodorus copied Herodotus, and Hecataeus ot 
Miletus, who had visited and written on Egypt, in the reign of Da- 
rius; and, perhaps the later work of Hecatoeus of Abdera, who was 
in Egypt after Alexander ; and who, from the little we know of him, 
appears to have been an intelligent man, although, to the Egyptians, 
all of them were naught but "impure foreigners" — so termed in hie- 
roglyphical legends by the Egyptians ; -in -the same manner, that for- 
eign nations are, to this day, in China, termed "outside barbarians." 
Other information was imbibed by Diodorus, from Greeks in Lower 
Egypt ; whose profound ignorance of Egyptian learning is only ex- 
ceeded by their indifference, their stupid self-complacency and egre- 
gious impudence. It will not be pretended that Diodorus could 
speak Egyptian. 

There is so little dependence to be placed on the accounts of He- 
rodotus or Diodorus, excepting on what they actually saw with their 
own eyes, or could comprehend from its nature when they saw it, 
that, by hieroglyphists their narratives are followed only in the ab. 
sence of better guides ; or, when their accounts are confirmed by 
other testimony. They could not discriminate between the truth or 
falsehood of the things that were told them; and the only way of 
accounting for the nonsense they often record, is to suppose, that the 
humorous Egyptians purposely misled them. We have to thank 
them however for putting all down ; leaving us the task of culling 
the pearls from the rubbish ; for there is no doctrine, however incon- 
sistent or improbable, that cannot be supported by quotations from 
Herodotus or Diodorus. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



39 



Let any stranger at the present day, through the medium of an 
interpreter ask the most intelligent native in the Delta, a question 
about modern Nubia, and its present relations with Egypt : and the 
answer will be a fable, modelled into the form the Fellah deems 
most likely to be pleasing to the stranger, if he does not con- 
fess his utter ignorance thereon ; a candor rare in the valley of the 
Nile, and possibly elsewhere. 

We must not merely look at the authority, but at the authority's 
resources and qualifications for information, no less than at the na- 
ture of the sources whence he could acquire that information. It 
would surprise any one to read descriptions of Egypt in some mod- 
ern works (published since Champollion's discoveries,) and then go 
to Cairo and ask old residents their opinions thereon. 

The authority of Herodotus and Diodorus on ancient Egyptian, 
and still more on ancient Ethiopian questions, distant 1000 miles 
from the provinces they visited (the epochs of the occurrence of 
which, date from 2000 to 3000 years before they were in Egypt,) is 
of about the same value, as would be the authority of some modern 
travellers of the last halt century, whose puerile information about 
even modern Cairo would be derived during a fortnight's residence, 
from an Arab Rais, or captain, a donkey-driver, or a European hotel- 
keeper ! Ask any of these last, about events which took place in 
Egypt only 500 years ago ! 

Travellers, therefore, who go beyond the first impressions they 
receive, are liable to err, if they attempt, without time and adequate 
study, to explain even what they behold. 

That information must be incorrect which is solely derived from a 
village Arab Sheykh, or Turkish Nazir, on events whereon it is im- 
possible these can possess any information — and which, in either 
case, is given to the traveller, ignorant of Arabic, through the medium 
of a stupid rascal, who, because he can jabber a few words of Eng- 
lish, waits at table and cleans your shoes, is dignified by the inappli- 
cable and inappropriate title of " dragoman" or interpreter. Let 
me ask, have not Americans just reason to complain of the cursory 
notes of English travellers, taken, during a railroad and steamboat 
trip, through the United States ? Yet, in this case the traveller 
speaks the same language as the nation, through whose country he 
whirls like an " ignis-fatuus." 

Judge then how incompetent must that traveller be, in a foreign 
land, unacquainted with the language of the natives, when he inquires 
of unlettered Fellahs, or of European freshmen, about events that 
transpired thousands of years before his visit ; and yet, such was 
precisely the position of Herodotus and Diodorus, in Egypt. 

If, therefore, my own assertions differ from those met with in 
works of any epoch, not written by disciples of the Champollion 
school, the reader will be so indulgent as to make some allowance 
for diversities of opinion, between one who knows a country from 
23 years of domicile and many years of critical investigation, and 
others, whose sojourn therein rarely equalled the same number of 
months, generally fell within the same number of weeks, and often 
did not exceed the same number of days. 

When Herodotus or Diodorus are quoted upon subjects, which we 
can prove they could learn little or nothing about, it is of no great 
consequence what inference may be derived from their conclusions ; 
because the well informed hierologists have better sources of inform- 
ation ; and may draw inferences from existing monuments and 
Egyptian autocthon chronicles, which give them, in 1843, an infi- 
nitely superior knowledge of early Egypt (dating 2000 years before 
the earliest Greek historian) than could be acquired by, or was 
known to, the Greeks, or the Romans ; whose testimony may be 
very often useful, but it is not evidence. 

AH authors who wrote on Egypt and Ethiopia, before the discov- 
eries of Champollion, or without a thorough perusal of the works of 
his school, are liable to error on subjects now perfectly understood ; 
and, in the present year, 1843, for a man to write on ancient Egypt, 
without first making himself really acquainted with what in the last 
20 years has been done by the Champollions, by Rosellini, by Wil- 
kinson and all the hieroglyphical students, is to act " the play of 
Hamlet, the part of Hamlet being left out by particular desire." 
Suppose an Egyptian were to write a history of the United States ; 
and to make a rule of never consulting one American author, while 
treating on American institutions, systems of government, manners 
and customs, annals or personages ; what sort of a book would he 
write ? and what opinion would the citizens of the United States 
have of his one-sided and narrow-minded production, treming, as it 
necessarily would, with nonsense, errors and misrepresentation ! 
And yet, it is a deed in absurdity precisely parallel for any one, in 
1843, to write on ancient Egypt, without ascertaining first what its 
ancient inhabitants record of themselves. 

It is the special object of these discourses to show what Egyptian 
history really is, at the present day ; and not to omit the facts, now 
elicited by the interpretation of hieroglyphical chronicles. 

At last, therefore, we can spread our canvas to the breeze, and 
begin our voyage down the stream of time. Fogs and mists preclude 
a very distinct sight of the course. We have many shoals to avoid ; 
and there are many long and gloomy portages, over which we must 
carry our imaginary bark, without knowing precisely the length, or 
the course of the river. As we descend, we shall find enormous 
land-marks, attesting the greatness of their builders, without always 
telling the age of their erection. We shall steer by them all; no- 



ting the relative bearings of each ; till, having reached the obelisk of 
Heliopolis, B. C. 2088, the mists will gradually dissipate as we pro- 
ceed ; but the shoals are still numerous, and the current still swift. 
Soon, however, we arrive at the stupendous Hypostyle Halls of Kar- 
nac, at the temples and palaces of Thebes, the hoary " Amunei," or 
abode of Amun, about the year 1800 B. C. ; from which time, the 
voyage will be easy and the scenery interesting, for a period of 2000 
years, when the hieroglyphical annals cease, and subsequent events 
are chronicled in universal history. 



CHAPTER FIFTH. 

It is unnecessary to preface this portion of my subject with a 
lengthened description of Egypt, as a country ; for its geographical 
position " in immiti solo ;" the general features of its soil, climate 
and fertility, and its semi-Asiatic, semi-African aspect, are familiar 
to the reader ; or, in any case, may be readily gleaned from popular 
works everywhere accessible. 

In my lecture room, a large Map, colored with due reference to its 
three leading features, the Nile, the Alluvium, and the Rocky Desert, 
conveys, at a glance, a more correct idea of Egypt than can be oth. 
erwise acquired ; and my familiarity with the whole ground will 
enable me, as occasion offers, to explain them by oral elucidations. 

I subjoin a skeleton map of the entire Valley of the Nile, whick 
will serve to make the sequel sufficiently intelligible. 
MAP OF THE NILE. 



Meridian of Paris. 
XXX. 



< French Leagues, 
(25 to a Degree. 



7-White Nile. 
&-Blue Nile, 



XV 

Khurtoom. 
Pyramids— Mi no t 



5— Atbara River. 



} Pyramids— JVoori. 
5 do Gebel-Bartuu. 




Tropic of Cancer 

Syene— 1st Cataract 
Hadjar-SilsUw ■ 



■^Mcmt&is. 



1 — Alexandria. 
i—Kosctta mouth. 
'3—Vamiata mouth. 



XXX North. XXV 

Mkditerrane.vn. 



40 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



Note. — The faint lines on each side of ihe Nile will give a fair idea of 
the alluvial soil, and its decrease, as we ascend the river from ihe sea. 

To the East and West of ihe Nile, beyond ihe flint line, is Rocky Desert. 
From Memphis to Hadjar Silsilis, the hills are limestone. At Hadjar Sil- 
silis, sandstone.. At Syene, or Asswan, granite. Above the 1st Cataract, 
sandstone predominates. At Mount Sinai, granite. 

The sand is chiefly at the northern terminus of the hills below Memphis, 
on the Suez desert, and on the sea coast. A narrow strip generally occurs 
between the alluvial soil on each side of the Nile, and the hills. These last 
begin at Cairo. 



Moreover, in treating on Temples, Tombs, Pyramids, and other 
monuments, I shall refrain from a description, or detailed specifica- 
tion of their relative sizes, plans, elevations, or dimensions, in ancient 
times, or at the present hour, beyond what may have a direct bear- 
ing on the point under discussion ; because, these may also be gath- 
ered by the reader from works of travel, popular geographies, and 
similar well-known authorities. 

Whether the great pyramid be 454 feet high, or 474, is to us a 
matter of indifference. Whether the statue called Memnon, be 
vocal, or not, we claim to be scarcely worth inquiry ; and what may, 
peradventure, be the precise length of the tail of the Great Sphinx, 
can be better decided by others more learned than the writer. 
In these interesting and important matters, we shall endeavor to be 
very superficial ; for these chapters, and my subsequent oral lectures, 
will only show who were the builders of these edifices; when they 
were erected ; and what purposes they were intended to serve ; with 
such elucidations as may be afforded by the hieroglyphics. 

The Septuagint computation for the era of the Flood, being taken 
as our extreme point of vision, the remote antiquity req-iired for 
Egypt sends us to the Bible, for the account of the earliest migrations 
of the human race. 

Genesis ix. 18th. — " And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the 
ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of 
Canaan." 19th. — " These are the three sons of Noah : and of them 
was the whole earth overspread." Ch. x. 6th. — " And thesons of Ham, 
Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan." 13th. — " And Miz- 
raim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim." 
14th. — " And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philis- 
tim) and Caphtorim." After indicating the children of Canaan, the 
20th verse declares, " These are the sons of Ham, after their 
tongues, in their countries, and in their nations." In 1st Chronicles, 
I., verses 4, 8, 11, 12, we obtain the same account verbatim. 

In the general allotment of territories to the offspring of Noah, 
Egypt, (by the concurrent testimony of all biblical commentators) 
was assigned to Mizraim, son of Ham, as a domain and for an 
inheritance. Thither he must have proceeded from the banks of the 
Euphrates in Asia, accompanied probably by Ham, his father : an 
inference not inconsistent with patriarchal longevity and the silence 
of Scripture, when we know that Egypt was termed Ham, or Kheme, 
by the Egyptians, from the earliest period of hieroglyphical writing; 



© 



JKHeM, Kali, the Land of Ham. 



A question arises, whether the migration of Mizraim may not 
have been antecedent to the dispersion of the rest of mankind from 
Shinar ; that is, whether it may not have been anterior to the 
confusion of tongues, on the destruction of Babel. We learn 
from Genesis x., 25, that the great grandson of Noah " was Peleg ; 
for in his day was the earth divided." Now, in Hebrew, Peleg 
means to sever, to separate : and, between the apparently peaceful 
migration (in Peleg's time) of the patriarchal grandchildren, when 
"the whole earth was of one language and one speech," while "they 
journeyed from the east toward the west," and the forcible disper- 
sion (after mankind had dwelt " in a plain in the land of Shinar") 
of man subsequently to the confusion of tongues at Babel, there is, 
chronologically, an intervening interval of sixty years, or, probably, 
of a longer period. 

It has been claimed, by Bryant and others, that the confusion of 
tongues was a labial failure — that the wrath of the Almighty fell solely 
on the Cushites as a people, with a few rebel associates of the tribes 
of Shem and Japheth ; and need not have included all mankind, 
as the virtuous portion of Noah's immediate family (with the arch- 
patriarch Noah himself, " who lived after the flood three hundred and 
fifty years," and who was alive somewhere on the earth during the 
events of Babel,) may, in obedience to the Almighty's mandate, have 
departed in the days of Peleg — the time of the peaceful separation — 
to the countries allotted to them. 

This speculative view is so far applicable to Egypt, that, in this 
case, Mizraim, who may have acquired the most fertile soil of the 
earth as a grant from Providence, was not an outcast from the patri- 
archal family : while, being of the same blood with Noah himself, 
he was in physical conformation a Caucasian, and in geographical 
origin an Asiatic. 

Hebraical scholars afford us the following explanation of " Shem, 
Ham, and Japheth." 

We learn from Genesis x., 21— that Japheth was the elder of 
Noah's children. The exact meaning of Japheth, according to Dr. 
Lamb, is " the man of the opening of the tent." Now in ch. ix., the 



27th verse, we read, " God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell 
in the tents of Shem." But a more appropriate translation of the 
Hebrew text is, " God shall open wide the door of the tabernacle 
to the descendants of Japheth, and they shall dwell in the taberna- 
cles of the children of Shem." Whereby we perceive a remarkable 
prophecy, of the call of the Gentiles to the rights and privileges of the 
Jewish church, many ages prior to the birth of Abraham ; and one 
that is rapidly drawing to fulfilment throughout the East, in a po. 
litical point of view, if " coming events cast their shadows before." 
Those who arc really acquainted with what the East is, are persuaded, 
with respect to the Holy Land itself, that the Jews, as a nation, have 
forfeited all right to the possession of it ; that God has totally, per- 
haps finally, deprived them of it ; and physically disqualified them, aa 
a nation, from its future independent occupation. " It has for cen- 
turies been trodden of the Gentiles. No people have been able to 
establish themselves securely for any length' time within its pre- 
cincts, nor will any, until it may please God to grant it to that na- 
tion, or to that family, whom he may choose" — which, if organic 
laws have any effect on our social constitution, will be to the con- 
quering hand of the " Andax genus Japethi" — the bold race of 
Japheth. Many pious Christians, and orthodox divines, consider the 
promises of the restoration of the Jews to be of a spiritual, and not 
of a temporal nature. 

Again, according to a rigid analysis of the Hebrew text, it is clear 
that Shem and Ham were twin brothers. 

Shem signifies " the white or fair twin'" — Ham, " the dark or 
swarthy twin;" and this is physiologically correct; because the twin 
offspring of the same parents cannot vary much in cuticular appear- 
ance. 

The fact, that these brothers were twins, explains the reason why 
we find them always placed in this order, Shem, Ham, and then 
Japheth. As the ancestor of the Jews themselves, and of the prom- 
ised seed, we can understand why precedence should be given to 
Shem ; and then Japheth (who was senior to Shem) ought to follow 
before Ham ; but as the brothers, Shem and Ham, were the produce 
of one birth, they were not separated. Ham, therefore, although 
the " younger son" of Noah — Genesis ix., 24 — always takes prece- 
dence of the eldest of the three brothers. 

I dwell rather upon the fact, that Shem and Ham were, according 
to the Hebrew text, twin brothers, to show that, physiologically, they 
were identical in race; with the trifling distinction (frequently ob- 
servable between twins, as they advance in age, at the present day,) 
that Ham was a shade or two more swarthy than his brother Shem ; 
who, as the father of the Jews, was a pure white man. 

The name of Ham was, by the Egyptians, preserved in the name of 
their country. The meaning of the Hebrew root, Ham, is " dark — 
brown of color ;" no less than " heat," and especially " solar heat." 
In Coptic it has precisely the same signification. And in Arabic it 
likewise means " swarthy of color," as, for instance, unbleached linen 
is called "goomash-&A<zm" — also, heat, &c. : but in no Semitic lan- 
guage does Ham, as a color, strictly mean black. 

Another popular fallacy, and one which, being very prevalent, 
produces many erroneous deductions, is the supposition that any 
curse attached itself to Ham : who, as the father of the Egyptians, 
has been therefore made the parent of other so-called African nations. 

This anomaly, which originates in the misconceptions of the early 
Fathers, falls to the ground, when we read with attention from the 
20th to the 27th verses of ix. Genesis. It is there expressly recorded 
as Noah's prophetic denunciation, not of Ham, nor of Cush, nor of 
Mizraim, nor of Phut, " cursed be Canaan" — the fourth and youngest 
son of Ham. 

Now Canaan, in direct contravention of the will of God, took 
possession of Palestine — the land destined for the posterity of Abra- 
ham ; and it was with a foreknowledge of his evil deeds, that Noah 
was permitted to curse him. Some fifteen centuries after this event, 
the Canaanites were ejected from Palestine, slaughtered, or subju- 
gated by the hosts of Joshua ; who politically fulfilled the extinction 
of a doomed race, and took possession of Abraham's inheritance. No 
doubt need be entertained that Canaan was accursed — and deservedly 
so, when we consider the abominations of the heathen rites origin- 
ated and practiced by his descendants — their human sacrifices — 
their altars reeking with the blood- of men : yet, even in the moral 
wilderness of Canaan we meet with oases ; for — Genesis xiv., 18 — 
Melchisedek, king of Salem, " was a priest of the most high God" — 
a proof, that, in Abraham's day, the worst Gentile nation had one 
man who followed the pure primeval creed ; nor did the Almighty 
disregard the expostulating prayer of Abimelech, king of Gerar — 
Gen. xx., 4 — " Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation ?" 

Other exceptions to the curse on Canaan and his descendants, are 
producible ; but, as a general rule, the Phoenicians and their Car- 
thaginian colony, with other Canaanites, were, in their paganism, 
atrociously inhuman. 

Canaan, however, was not physically changed in consequence of 
the curse. He ever remained a white man, as did, and do, all his 
many descendants. No scriptural production can be found, that 
would support an hypothesis so absurd, as that, in consequence of the 
curse, Canaan was transmuted into a negko, or into any, the very 
slightest affinities to the varied races we now designate as Africans ; 
while equally untenable is that opinion which would, in consequence 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



4i 



of their undeniable inferiority of race, account the Negroes to be 
by Providence accursed. 

What the Canaanites were, prior to B. C. 1500, I shall illustrate in 
my lectures by the portrait of a Canaanite (coexistent with every 
variety of Negro, also illustrated,) from the Theban sculptures, cut 
about the period of the Jewish Exodus ; over whose head is read 
in hieroglyphics, *^Bfn A/VWv x g " Kanana, barbarian 

country;" given "|w vi * "%k among proper names 

in the preceding JFW" vWA J^nI &&g chapter ; and, it is 
well worthy of remark, that on three different occasions (two of 
them recorded prior to the Exode, and one while the Jews were 
probably at Mount Sinai,) we find the Fhuraonic armies conquering 
places in Canaan — " Kanana !" This is perfectly confirmatory of 
the chronological arrangement herein followed ; because, as Joshua 
overthrew the land of Canaan subsequently to these Egyptian victo- 
ries, it is quite natural that, during events preceding Joshua, " the 
Canaanite should still be in the land" as he was in the days of Abra- 
ham. In later times, among the hieroglyphical records of Egyptian 
conquests in Palestine, Kanana disappears, to be replaced by the 
"King of Judah." 

If then with the curse branded on Canaan, and on his whole pos- 
terity, the Almighty did not see fit to change his skin, his hair, bones, 
or any portion of his physical structure, how unjust, how baseless is 
that theory (unsupported by a line in Scripture, and in diametrical 
opposition to monumental and historical testimony,) which would 
make Canaan's immediate progenitor, Ham, the father of the Ne- 
groes! or his apparently blameless brother, Mizraim, an Ethiopian ! 

Ham , indeed, is omitted after the prophetic execration of Canaan, 
And, while Shem is peculiarly blessed, and Japheth is told thai " God 
shall enlarge" him, and that he shall dwell (as he does) " in the tents 
of Shem," neither Ham, nor his other three sons, Cush, Mizraim and 
Phut, are doomed to be k\\o\v -servants with the " servant of servants," 
Canaan. 

In fact, Ham and his three sons partook of all earthly blessings ; 
and whether he accompanied Mizraim into Egypt or not, we find the 
earliest Egyptian records (written not many centuries after his death,) 
give his name to the Valley of the Nile — that in Psalm lxxviii., 51, 
and elsewhere, Egypt is designated as " the tabernacles of Ham" — 
and that a variety of other testimony associates Ham with the rich- 
est, most fertile, and most ancient country of the earth ; and makes 
him the progenitor of the most civilized and powerful nation of an- 
tiquity. 

It would not be at all consistent with the authority that enjoins on 
the Hebrews the observance of the following Law, to suppose any 
curse hung over Ham or his descendants, until, in long posterior times, 
these had morally fallen from the character of their high-caste an- 
cestry. No nations but Egypt and Edom enjoyed this privilege. 

Deut. xxiii., 7, 8 — "Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite, for he is 
thy brother : thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a 
stranger in his land. The children that are begotten of them shall 
enter into the congregation of the Lord in their third generation." 

It is a curious philological coincidence, that in Egyptian hieroglyph- 
ics, as in Coptic, the word for stranger was '• shemmo." The Is- 
raelite was a stranger in Egypt, and a descendant of Shem — he was 
therefore shemmo.* 

In one word, from the earliest times, the children of Ham, or Egyp- 
tians, and the children of Shem, or Israelites, bore each other no he- 
reditary ill-will. Why should they, being of the same Caucasian 
stock, the descendants of twin brothers ? This constant attachment 
to Egypt, on the part of the Hebrews, continued ever intact, and 
even excited the Divine anger ; while, finally, no curse did or could 
separate Ham from the temporal blessings allotted to his family, or 
from union spiritually with his twin brother Shem ; because a portion 
of Ham's blood flowed in the line of the promised seed, through Ra- 
hab of Jericho, a Canaanitish woman, who married Salmon, and be- 
came the mother of Boaz, the grandfather of Jesse, the father of David. 

According to the Bible, therefore, Egypt was colonized by Ham's 
children ; and it has been shown, that, in hieroglyphics, the ancient 
name of that country was " the land of Ham." It has likewise 
been seen how in Hebrew, in Arabic, and in Coptic, Ham means 
dark, swarthy in color ; and this application of the name to Egypt 
proceeds from the dark-colored loam, or Nilotic alluvium, of its pro- 
lific soil ; for Plutarch tells us, that " Egypt was called Chemmia 
from the blackness of its soil." As the root of Chemmia is the Se- 
mitic word Ham, which only means dark, it is an error of Plutarch 
to render it black. The ancient city of Panopolis, in the Thebaid, 
was termed Kemmis by Greek writers, as its native Egyptian name ; 
and its site still preserves its ancient designation in the modern 
E'khrnim. 

In the mythological system of the Egyptians, Khem was a deity 
of the first order, representing, as an attribute of the Almighty, the 
generative principle extending over procreation in the animal and 
vegetable world — a doctrine singularly in accordance with the mys- 
tic attributes of the father of the Egyptians— Ham, the son of Noah 



* A name preserved still in Syria, the land of Shem, which is called Shim by Semitic 
nations— the city of Damascus is still called— es-Sham. 




— and possibly connected, in some mysterious manner, with his 
memory and their origin. 

Amun-KHEM. 
On the altar behind him 
are two trees. Khem is in 
some way connected with 
the tree, a sycamore, still in- 
digenous to Egypt — and in 
hieroglyphical legends Egypt 
is often termed " the land of 
the sycamore." 

The far-famed god Osiris, 
among his various attribu- 
tions (as the Nile, or the 
"Judge of Amenti," the fu- 
ture state,) is mystically a 
form of Khem, who corres- 
ponds also to the Hindoo 
Siva, and from whom the 
Greeks derived their Pluto. 

Mizraim (in Hebrew, also 
Mitzar) son of Ham, came 
from Asia into Egypt, and 
colonized that luxurious val- 
ley. Although, in hiero- 
glyphics, this name has not 
been found, we have scriptu- 
ral authority in abundance, 
that the country was called 
Mizraim, and Mitzar, by the 
Jews ; while, at the present day, throughout the east, Egypt and 
Cairo are universally known by the cognate appellation of Muss'r. 
According to Sanconiathon, Misor (who may be Mizraim ?) was 
the ancestor of Taautus— our Thoth— Hermes-trismegistus— who 
invented the writing of the first letters : so that Phoenician annals 
agreed with Egyptian, in attributing letters to the same personage ; 
while it coincides with our view of scriptural chronology, and the 
Asiatic origin of the Egyptians, that, if by Misor, Sanconiathon 
meant Mizraim, that Thoth— Hermes should be his descendant. 

Egypt was called Mizraim by the Hebrews — and the little " Sey- 
aleh," or Desert-water-course, of Rhinocolura, near El-Areesh on the 
isthmus of Suez, as the boundary line between Egypt and Palestine, 
was termed " Nachal-Mizraim," the torrent of Egypt. It never 
means the Nile, which, in Hebrew, is " Jear" or " Jeor." 

The roots of the word Mizraim are, by Hebraical philologists, 
shown to be Tzur — a rock, a narrow place — whence Matzur, a for- 
tress. Mizraim is the dual number— signifying " the two rocks" — 
" the two fortresses" — " the two barriers." This may be explained 
either by the peculiar topographical formation of the valley itself, 
on each side of which a rock, the Lybian and the Eastern hills, con. 
fines the river Nile ; or by regarding these two chains, as two natu- 
ral fortresses, acting as barriers to the nomads of the eastern desert 
on the one hand, and of the western on the other. It may likewise 
apply to Upper and Lower Egypt, designated in hieroglyphics as 
" the two regions." 

As we are on comparisons of early biblical nomenclatures and 
hieroglyphical territorial appellatives, I will indicate a curious con- 
firmation of our theory in another son of Ham, who appears to have 
crossed through Egypt, and settled in Lybia to the west. Lybia was 
X_^«^^°* termed by the Egyptians, prior to 2000 B. C, "The 
^Bk = country of the nine bows" — a designation extremely 
__ "ZZ. appropriate to the wild nomads of the "Beladed-dje- 
— "~~L reed" (as the Arab writers designate " Fezzan") the 
fcfr^fr" 1 ™ countries of the date-palm : for Lybian archers and 
Numidian cavalry are celebrated in history ; nor have the " Moghar- 
ba" Arabs, under Abd-el-Kiider, lost caste in military prowess. The 
number nine may be vague, as representative of " a great many ;" 
or specific, as to the tribes of Lybia \J.) 

Now phonetically, these characters read in Coptic, Niphaiat; whence 
cutting off ni, the plural, and suppressing the vowels, we obtain. 
Ph-t, or Phut, as the name whereby the children of Phut (son of 
Ham) are known in history '. A bow, in Coptic, is likewise Phet. 
In Jeremiah, Cush and Phut represent Africa. I can find no hiero- 
glyphical instance, that the Phut are termed barbarians, which would 
be natural, if they be the descendants of Mizraim's brother; but I 
am not positive on this head. 

To avoid misconception, it behoves me to remark, that the hiero 
glyphical name for Negroes, which is Kush, has no apparent relation 
to Cush, the son of Ham. I shall expound, in my lectures, why 
they are distinct, and how they have been confounded. The Cush 
of the Hebrews, as well as the Ethiopia, of our version, and of 
Greek writers, is Antediluvian in date ; and is applied, with marvel. 
lous indistinctness, to Egypt, Arabia Petrsea, Nubia, Nigritia, Abys 
sinia, Arabia Proper, Persia, Chusistan, Scythia, Bactria, Assyria, 
India, and almost to every country of the Eastern-African, and Asi- 



42 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 




atic Continents. In hieroglyphics, Kush means exclusively African 
races in general, and negroes in particular; as 



barbarian country, perverse race." 



inscribed over Negro captives. 

On the geographical distribution of the seven sons of Mizraim, 
the hieroglyphical names of Egyptian localities have as yet shed no 
light. Biblical commentators are not agreed, as to the precise terri- 
tories of the Ludtm, and the Lehabim ; but the latter are placed in 
Lybia westward of Lower Egypt— possibly in the Cyrenaica ; and 
the former are conjectured to have colonized the province of Mari- 
otis. The Anamim are supposed to have occupied the Oases. The 
Naphtuhim possessed the sea-coast of the Delta ; and were nautical 
in their habits, if it be fair to derive the Greek vavOria (pronounced 
Naphthys) and the Arabic " Nobtee," — sailor, from the Hebrew root. 

As from the Casluhim proceeded the Philistim, they have been 
placed, by some, on the eastern side of the Nile, near Lake Menza- 
leh. To the Pathrusim has been assigned the Thebaid. 

In hieroglyphics, the Lotus typified Upper, and the Papyrus, Lower 
Egypt. 

In Hebrew, the name of Upper Egypt was Pthrus, whence our 
Pathros, from the root PTHR — " to interpret dreams." Now Up- 
per Egypt, or the Thebaid, was the birth-place of mystic science, 
and of initiation in occult mysteries — symbolized by the Lotus, typi- 
cal of " celestial light," as well as of the Thebaid, where science 
originated. Again, in Hebrew, Lower Egypt was called Mtsur — 
Egypt and Cairo are now termed Mussr — while the papyrus plant 
furnished food to man, and may in consequence have indicated 
" the region of primitive agriculture ;" such as must have been that 
portion of the Nilotic valley to its first settlers. We have the au- 
thority of Herodotus, that the papyrus was the first food, the primi- 
tive aliment of the Egyptians; as likewise of Horus-Apollo, that 
the papyrus meant, in hieroglyphics, "the first nutriment of man," 
and " the ancient origin of things." Now the papyrus grew only in 
Lower Egypt ; was the cheapest food of its former population, and 
agriculture, with primitive social organization, began in Lower Egypt. 

Thus does Hebrew confirm the symbols of the Egyptians. Be- 
sides tracing in the word Mizraim, and explaining it by the transla- 
tion of " the two fortresses," we reach other curious coincidences. 
The singular number of Mizraim, is Mtzur — embracing two roots, 
tntse, meaning " unleavened bread ;" and tsrr, signifying " a bun- 
dle," or " a roll of papyrus," as used by scribes, symbolizing the 
first food, and the ancient origin of things. 

Now, unleavened bread — mtse — existed in the days of Moses, 
Exodus xxii. 8, and other verses — no less than leavened bread, xiii. 
3, 7. The Jews were an Arabian, and essentially a pastoral people, 
before they settled in Canaan. Unleavened bread was the primitive 
food of man, in the early stages of civilization, and before he learned 
to leaven it. It was adopted by the Jews, on their departure 
across the desert from Goshen, as the simplest mode of preparing 
bread in the wilderness ; and has ever been the daily food of the 
Arabian nomad, the present Bedawee, who prepares a cake of flour 
and water, bakes it with dried camel's dung, and calls it " Go&ra- 
sa." The Hebrew lawgiver, when the Almighty ordained the Pass- 
over, adopted the unleavened cake for his nomadic tribe. The 
agricultural and civic institutions of the Egyptians, had previously 
induced them to adopt as a symbol of civilization, (in contradistinc- 
tion to the coarse unfermented aliment of the nomad,) the leavened 
bread, expressed in hieroglyphics by /T\ the consecrated loaf; 
identical in shape with the consecrated \^j cake of the Roman 
and Eastern Churches; and preserved, 'among us, in the hot- 

cross-buns, sold on Good-Fridays, and on the Continent during 
other festivals. Thus a clear distinction was permanently estab- 
lished between Egyptian and Hebrew rites, between leavened and 
unleavened bread. 

The location of the Caphtorim is uncertain. It has been conjec- 
tured that they were placed in the Delta, or near Pelusium, or in 
Crete, or in Western Palestine- 

Caphtor, has been ingeniously traced to Ai-Caphtor, or covered 
land — possibly referring to the annual covering of Egypt by the wa- 
ters of the Nilotic inundation. Hence, by elision, we obtain Ai- 
capht, or Ai-copht; and, by transmution with Greek, " A"yvirr"-o5, 
Egypt; which may derive some confirmation from the Arabic, "Gypt" 
or " Gupt," or " Qooft," in relation to our word Copt, the present na- 
tive Christian population of that country. It is curious, that in San- 
scrit, Egypt is termed Gupta-shan, covered land wherein we trace 
the same root Gypt ; no less than Cardama-shan, meaning mud 
'and. In Greek, Aigyptos, often means the Nile itself. 



The ancient classical name, Aeria, which is traceable to d»j/>, de. 
noting obscurity and darkness, in reference to the color of Egyptian 
alluvium (as in Scripture, " the darkness of Egypt") has not been 
found in hieroglyphics ; but I think it derivable from the roots of Ra, 
Ouro, Aur; explained in the previous chapter, as referring to Phre, 
the sun, the solar deity of Egypt. 

Much of the above, in regard to the original geographical distri- 
bution of the sons of Mizraim, is problematical. I should not have 
alluded to the children of Mizram, were it not essential to prove by 
negatives (when the absolute silence of Scripture leaves no better 
argument,) that there is nothing in the Bible, which compels us to 
carry the first settlers in Egypt very far up the Nile : but, on the con- 
trary, that in the opinion of the best biblical commentators, only one 
son of Mizraim (head of the Pathrusim) is supposed to have ascended 
the river as far as the Thebaid ; while all the other brethren set- 
tled in Lower Egypt, Lower Lybia, the Delta, and the land of Go. 
shen toward Palestine. 

There is then no biblical ground for supposing that Ham's imme- 
diate family ascended the banks of the Nile, even as far as the first 
Cataract ; and this is but reasonable, when we reflect, that the mid- 
dle.andthe lower provinces offered inducements to agricultural tribes, 
incomparably superior to any that could be found above the The- 
baid, in Nubia, or in Ethiopia, as far as Nigritia in the 15th parallel 
of latitude. There is every scriptural reason to suppose Lower 
Egypt the territory first colonized by the family of Ham, on their pri- 
meval migration from Assyria to the Nilotic valley, which will be 
found in strict accordance with monumental evidence. 

It has been shown, that there was no curse on Ham, or on Miz- 
raim. We know, that the curse on Canaan affected him morally, 
and not physically. We have seen, that Shem, Ham and Japheth, 
were of one blood as brothers. We have learned that Shem and 
Ham were twin brothers. We know, that Shem, the parent of Sem- 
itic nations, and Japheth, the parent of Circassian tribes, were 
Caucasians. It follows therefore, that Ham was a Caucasian also, 
and so were all his children, and Mizraim in particular, when he 
entered Egypt. 

It is our part now to prove, that not time, nor circumstance, nor 
climate, effected any palpable change, or physical alteration, in their 
progeny ; and that Ham's lineal descendants, the Egyptians, were all 
pure blooded Caucasians, from the earliest to the latest Pharaonic 
epoch — modified in the Upper Nilotic provinces by the admixture of 
exotic Austro-Egyptian (that is, as Dr. Morton explains, by com- 
pound Semitico-Hindoo and equally Caucasian) blood ; and this was 
strictly the fact, except in incidental and individual intermixture with 
the African races of Berbers and Negroes in those provinces to Ethi- 
opia adjacent. This latter commingling, however, appears to have 
but partially affected the gross of Egyptian population of Asiatic ori 
gin ; and to have been no more visible, (probably still less so) among 
the Pharaonic Egypto-Caucasian family, than it is now discern, 
ible among the Fellahs, of the lower and middle provinces of the 
present day. 

On the dubious authority of the Greeks, and their pupils the Ro- 
mans, it has been and is still asserted, that at the early, period of 
which we are treating — that of primeval migrations — Lower Egypt 
was an " uninhabitable marsh ;" and, therefore, that Upper Egypt 
must have been settled first. Nay, Herodotus and Diodorus main- 
tain, that Ethiopia, above the cataracts, was the cradle of the ancient 
Egyptians. 

Bryant, who, by the way, frequently breathes " the word of promise 
to the ear, and breaks it to the hope," has judiciously remarked, that 
" among many learned men, who have betaken themselves to these 
researches, I have hardly met with one that has duly considered the 
situation, distance, and natural history of the places about which they 
treat :" and, on applying his observation to the points at issue, it will 
be found wonderfully pertinent. 

From the poetic era of Homer, down to the sentimentalism of the 
present age, it has been fashionable, to take much for granted on 
Egyptian subjects, of which a sober and practical investigation of the 
facts would at once have exposed the fallacy. These chapters and 
my future lectures are specially directed to the removal of the more 
prominent instances of ancient or modern misconception. My opin- 
ions are the result of some study, and comparison of the most distin- 
guished authorities. I have had opportunities of which I have gladly 
availed myself, for hearing many of these questions canvassed in Egypt, 
by some of the most critical observers of the day, often standing on the 
very spots under discussion. Much have I verified in personal trav. 
els, and through favorite occupations, during a sojourn prolonged in 
that country "for the greater part of twenty-three years. When, 
therefore, I make a confident assertion, it isnotdone rashly, nor with 
some acquaintance with the matter, nor without abundance of evi- 
dence in reserve for its support. 

Among the illusions consecrated by the halo of ages, there is none 
so singular, and that strikes any one who has traversed the Nomes 
or Provinces of Egypt, in their length and breadth, as more unac 
countable and inconceivable with the array of natural facts presented 
to him, than the statement, that the Delta of Egypt is of recent date ; 
or otherwise, that its formation has taken place within any period, to 
which even tradition may carry us. To adopt the language of Sir 
J. G. Wilkinson, whose critical investigation of every subject and 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



43 



locality of that country during some twelve yaars of actual sojourn, 
has led him to the most accurate conclusions, " we are led to the 
necessity of allowing an immeasurable time for the total formation of 
that space, which to judge from the very little accumulation of its 
soil, and the small distance it has encroached on the sea, since the 
erection of the ancient cities within it, would require ages, and throw 
back its origin far beyond the deluge, or even the Mosaic era of the 
Creation." * 

So thoroughly, indeed, has Sir J. G. Wilkinson demonstrated this 
fact, that, were it desirable to enter into details, the most convincing 
method would be to extract from pages 5 to 11 of his first, and from 
pages 105 to 121 of his fourth volume, of "Manners and Customs 
of the Ancient Egyptians." But, since the curious can readily peruse 
this eminent work for themselves, I perform an agreeable duty in 
referring to his statement, adding at the same time an expression of 
my admiration of its accuracy. The following axioms will then be 
arrived at : 

1st. That the Delta is as old as the flood, and was as inhabitable 
when Ham's children entered Egypt, as it is in those parts which 
are peopled at the present hour. In fact, owing to the constant rise 
of the bed of the river being more rapid than that of the soil on its 
banks, the Delta and Lower Egypt are probably more marshy now, 
than at any previous period. 

2nd. That, to the south of the Delta, the perpendicular rise of the 
bed of the Nile extends the inundation and alluvial deposit much 
farther, in a horizontal and lateral direction, East and West, at the 
present day, than was the case at any anterior period — that this pro- 
cess has always been in operation — and that there is now a wider 
extent of superficies overflowed and irrigated by the inundation than 
at any former time. 

3d. That the exaggerated and ridiculous stories, about the encroach- 
ment of sand on the arable soil of Egypt, deserve no attention; for, on 
the contrary, whatever injurythe sand mayhave here and there effected 
(that is, at Rosetta, Beni-saliime, the pyramids, Behnesa, and Aboo- 
simbel) the number of square miles of inundated alluvium has always 
been, and will ever be, on the increase,so long as similar causes operate 
to produce similar effects. 

4th. That the celebrated Oases, to the westward of Egypt, are not 
" fertile spots in the midst of a sandy plain ;" but depressions in the 
lofty table-land of Africa, where, in the absence of the superincum- 
bent limestone strata, the water has the power of rising to the surface. 
5th. That the desert is not a dreary plain of sand, which has over- 
whelmed a once fertile country, whose only vestiges are the " iso- 
lated gardens of the Oases," but a high table-land of limestone, sand- 
stone, granite and other rocks, according to locality; broken and in- 
terrupted by alternate elevations and depressions : where, when not 
on the top of the table-rock itself, you travel in ravines, defiles, and 
spaces, on hard gravel, upon which your tread often leaves no trail ; 
and where frequently you are truly delighted, as the shades of even- 
ing warn you to search for a bivouack, if you can find as much sand 
as will make under your carpet aB^dawee's mattress. The Isthmus 
of Suez, and those already-named places, which the casual Anglo- 
Indian hurries over in his explorative transit, are exceptions to the 
above rule, for very simple reasons. 

The fanciful accounts of caravans' being overwhelmed by sands 
in the desert, would be too puerile to deserve attention, did not those 
paragons of observers, Herodotus and Strabo, Paul Lucas and Mr. 
St, John (who confine their knowledge to the half-mile strip of sand 
between the cultivated soil and the desert, or "Higar," stone) per- 
petuate the delusion. Strabo, like some later travellers, must have 
braved great dangers during his voyage ! and, even now, we read 
about wonderful escapes and miraculous preservations frqm a Si- 
moom ! The army of Cambyses is said to have been swallowed up 
by waves of sand. It would be a phenomenon in physics to see one 
of such waves. Others, besides the writer, who are still alive to tell 
the tale, have been out in the wilderness during the worst Si- 
mooms that ever blew, and found them disagreeable enough ; but, 
having abundance of water at hand, they sat down under the lee of 
anything they could find — (camels kneeling down afford as much 
shelter as is necessary) and, without a shadow of apprehension, suf- 
fered the blast to blow over with its cloud, not of sand, but of hot, 
impalpable, though penetrating dust. 

No aerial force having the power of raising waves of sand, there 
never was, during a Simoom or Khdmeseen, the slightest danger 
from any motion oi the sands of the desert. If a man, during these 
hot winds, be remote from pools or springs, and the skins which con- 
tain water for his beverage break, or are dried up, then he will per- 
ish from thirst, his drought being aggravated by the parching heat of 
a lurid atmosphere. Consequently, where caravans have perished in 
the desert, from causes not originating in man himself, they have 
died, after losing their way, from hunger and thirst; as did the army 
of Cambyses, after encountering the arrows of the " nine bows" of 
Lybia. As the animals fall, the light particles of dust or fine sand- 
drift accumulate with the obstruction, and may sometimes bury the 
carcass ; but this is so rare, that, when occasionally in journeying 
over the desert, you pass the skeleton of a camel, you often regret, 
that there was not sand enough to screen the unpleasing relic from 
your view. 

The desert, the sand, the Simoom, the Khameaeen, with all their 



fabulous horrors, alarm not the Arab who has plenty of water; and 
to a hale European, are infinitely more appalling in a book of 
travels, than when encountering the acme of their disagreeables m the 
Sahara itself. To those who love clear skies, pure air, often beau- 
tiful, ever romantic scenery, there is a charm in desert- life, that can 
be felt, but not described. 

Finally, there is no danger in the desert at any time, (save now 
and then, from man, who, even there is much belied) provided the 
wayfarer has food and water (without which he could not exist in 
Eden,) and, as for the dangers of a Simoom, in comparison with those 
of a snow-storm in the Highlands of Scotland, among the Alpine 
crags of Switzerland, or on the northwestern prairies of America, 
they are not to be mentioned in the same breath. 

These subjects afford ample room for prolixity, but being at present 
irrelevant, I apologize for the digression. Let us return to Lower 
Egypt, the pristine seat of Ham's descendants. 

Positive levels demonstrate to us, that when the Delta was an "arm 
of the sea," or even " an uninhabitable marsh," Asia and Africa were 
separate Continents, and the Red Sea flowed into the Mediterranean. 
In those days the Mokattam hills behind Cairo, and the opposite Ly- 
bian chain, whereon now stand the eternal pyramids, (if those hills 
were then in existence) stood out, into the sea, bold capes and prom- 
ontories. The nearest points of either Continent would have been 
Gebel Attaka on the African, to Gcbel Ein Moosa on the Asiatic side, 
at the present apex of the Red Sea, distant from each other about 
thirty miles. While, on each Continent, sterile rocks were all, that 
for hundreds of miles, were out of the water. 

The same geological transitions that caused the recession of the 
waters, and upheaved the narrow slip which now connects Africa 
with Asia, burst asunder the basaltic barriers of Wadee Haifa, rifted 
the granite portals of Syene, opened the sandstone gateways of Had- 
jar Silsilis, separated the limestone ranges of the eastern and western 
hills, and by forming the Valley of the Nile, allowed the " sacred 
river" to pour along the narrow channel its ever fertilizing stream. 
Then was the alluvial soil of Upper Egypt begun, and eventually 
formed, simultaneously with the Delta — one did not exist without the 
other : and until the alluvial deposite had been made, there was no 
soil throughout the land of Egypt, or in Ethiopian latitudes, but all 
was hard rock, unfit for man's abode. 

The periods of these events are geological, their latest epoch is 
diluvian; but the alluvium had to be formed, before man could inhabit 
the " land of the Sycamore." 

The geology of the Isthmus of Suez and of the adjacent deserts, 
with their oyster beds, and petrified forests ; their vitrified rocks of 
sandstone upon limestone, and their porphyry upheavings; their erratic 
blocks, and argillaceous strata ; presents a mass of conflicting irregu- 
larities, from the dilemmas of which it would require the analyzing 
hand of a Lyell to extricate us ; but, amid the chaos, one point is 
certain, which is, that when Ham's children came from Asia into 
Egypt, their journey was by land from Assyria through Palestine, and 
across the Suez desert — that they found Lower Egypf, and the Delta 
as inhabitable then, and as suited to agriculture, in proportion to the 
alluvium then existing in the upper country, as they are now — that if 
the Delta had little soil, there was then still less above — and that all 
scriptural commentators agree in distributing the sons of Mizraim 
over this lower tract ; whence, as population increased, their progeny 
spread themselves in suitable directions, according to circumstances 
by us unknown, but actuated by motives probably to them expedient. 
" Dato il caso, e non concesso;" let us for a moment suppose, that 
Lower Egypt, on the immigration of Mizraim, was a marsh. Let us 
concede, that there was a macadamized road from Palestine to the 
Mokattam at Cairo : and let it be, for a moment allowed, that Miz- 
raim, his wife and children ascended at once to the first Cataract. 
Where shall we place them ? where shall we find alluvial soil and 
vegetation, in a land in which these primary principles were entirely 
wanting ? that is ; for all pastoral, and still more for agricultural pur- 
poses ? For when the Delta was a marsh, there was not six feet 
breadth of soil above Hadjar Silsilis ; but all was barren rock. 

However, we will suppose that onward they plod their weary way, 
(as did those Cushites ! who, by some are said to have come from 
Babel, through Asia, across Behring's Straits, into North America, 
as far as Mexico, and onward to Peru,) taking their provisions with 
them. Mizraim had to bring from Palestine to the Mokattam, a dis- 
tance of at least 300 miles, sufficient for his family and his flocks, and 
thence to convey his commissariat 610 miles farther to Syene. It 
being useless to remain amid granite rocks, they are hence carried 
onward into Nubia. Now, in Lower Nubia, even at the present day, 
there is not soil enough to support its sparse and frugal population of 
" Barabera." Yet, their provisions being abundant (probably her- 
metically sealed,) after a march of 220 miles more to the second Cata 
ract, and not discouraged in the least, by the howling wilderness 
they "go ahead;" and after a couple of hundred miles, they find wha' 
are now the plains of Dongola, but which were then rather mor« 
rocky than alluvial. " Rebus angustis animosus" &c, Mizraim, 
nothing daunted, after a march of 200 miles (for he had to follow the 
river to obtain water) finally reaches the far-famed " Isle of Meroe in 
Ethiopia." We will suppose this spot to have been a terrestrial para, 
dise at that time, whatever it be now, and it is about as fertile as Lower 
Nubia. Here, after a weary tramp from Palestine of above 1500 



44 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



miles (performed with as much rapidity as the children and flocks 
allowed,) Mizraim and his family settle and here they multiply. 

As Mizraim and his children were all Caucasians at first start, in 
order to change their skins from white to black, their hair to wool, 
and to alter their osteology, " through the effects of climate," time at 
least must be allowed. Who will define the necessary period for 
these radical changes ? Never mind — we grant every facility. Let 
countless generations transpire. Let them become Negroes, or Ber- 
bers, in race. Let thorn reach the acme of civilization. Let them 
surpass Dahomey ; outrival Ashantee ; become as intellectual as 
Hottentots — as philanthropical as Tuaricks — as constructive as Tib- 
boos. Let them build the pyramids of Meroe, Gebel Birkal, and 
Noori — which done, let them come down the Nile again, to build 
the pyramids of Memphis and cover Egypt with stupendous struc- 
tures ; a perfect, and essentially a civilized community ; to confirm 
Herodotus, and his Egyptian applications, of ^tXayxfwej irai oi\6 rpix'S 
" black in complexion, and wooly-haired"* to be called also MsA<t//Ti$- 
Sw — "the black-footed;" or more appropriately, " the long-heeled 
race." On their arrival in Lower Egypt, the Delta, of course, is no 
longer a marsh ; and having waited for its formation, they cover it 
with cities. 

Let them, I repeat, perform all of these impossibilities, and then 
they are no longer Africans in Egypt. A miracle (of which we have 
no record) has metamorphosed them again into Caucasians. 

It does seem odd, if not unnecessary, to make the Asiatic and Cau- 
casian Mizraimites at once proceed up the Nile, 1500 miles to Meroe; 
there to study and improve and sojourn, until the wonderful effects 
of climate should transmute them into Africans ; and then, after 
countless generations, to lead them back into Egypt, and there wit- 
ness their transition into pure white men, in a climate where no 
Ethiopian ever changed his skin ! 

And we must make all these changes in far less than one thousand 
years : that is, we start with Ham and Mizraim as Caucasians ; we 
transport them from Assyria into Ethiopia, and watch their transition 
into Negroes, or Berbers, by the effects of climate, and under the 
vaguest extent of time : we perfect them as such, and doat upon the 
sable or dusky philosophers, who are to instruct Moses, and civilize 
the Greeks. We then bring them back into Egypt, and by magic as 
it were, transmute these Negroes or Berbers, again into pure white 
men, or Caucasians, such as every Egyptian was. We must accom- 
plish all this between Mizraim and Abraham — in a space of about 
100 years, by the Hebrew version ; of about 500 by the Septuagint. 
On Egyptian monuments (as I shall prove by facsimile copies) we 
find the Negro and the Berber, painted prior to 1500, B. C, as per- 
fectly distinct from the Egyptian natives, as an Anglo-Saxon is from 
a Chimpansee. If four thousand years have not had the slightest 
effect in whitening Negroes, how much change of color could have 
been accomplished in one-eighth of the time ? 

What should we say, if such a doctrine were maintained in defi- 
ance of Scripture, of nature, and of fact ? We should disdain to regard 
such nonsense ; and yet such is precisely the course we must pur- 
sue, if Ham be the father of the Egyptians, and the Egyptians de- 
scended the Nile from Ethiopia into Egypt. Such is precisely what 
must have occurred, if we believe Herodotus, Diodorus, and their 
Roman plagiarists ; and such is, in fine, the analysis of the Ethiopian 
origin of the Egyptians, if we pretend to believe the Bible. I will 
cast ethnography to the winds ; I will discard chronology as a dream ; 
but even then, I confess my inability to comprehend, or to accept, 
such a tissue of absurdities, if not profanations. 

However, with Genesis for our guide in human primeval migra- 
tions, with the Septuagint chronology as our limit, and the Delta an 
inhabitable province, at the time of Mizraim's arrival from the plains 
of Shinar ; it will be seen, that Egyptian monumental history coin- 
cides — that, where Scripture is silent, other lights are now obtain- 
able — and that, if a blank intervenes between Mizraim and Abra- 
ham's visit, the Septuagint gives a period of about 550 years : to fill 
which, we have a mass of materials. Turn now to Archbishop 
Usher's chronology, and take note, that between Mizraim and Abra- 
ham, we have to condense all the events into a space not exceeding 
200 years ; when there could not have been 100,000 inhabitants on all 
the earth, according to any reasonable statistical calculation ; where- 
as, if Abraham's birth be placed at more than 1000 years after the 
Flood, a period has been allowed for the propagation of mankind, 
which, at least, is more reasonable, no less than more orthodox. 
However, it is sufficient for me to acknowledge Ham and Mizraim 
to be the progenitors of the Egyptians. On the epoch of the latter's 
immigration, I have not the presumption to decide. It is enough 
that it took effect, at an adequate lapse of time after the Deluge, and 
yet sufficiently remote from Menes, the first Pharaoh of Egypt, to 
admit all relative preparatory events : and as, on Egypt, the Bible 
is silent for many centuries, we may legitimately look to other sources 
for information. 

The authority of Sir J. G. Wilkinson, on the antiquity of the 
Delta, is supported by that of all scientific gentlemen of present 
times in Egypt, whose occupations, as surveyors and engineers, enable 
them to corroborate this view by mathematical demonstration. By 

* I give the generally accepted translation, though aware that it will bear some modi- 
fication, by going back to the Greek roots. MelamDodon pxobablv refexs to feet black- 
ened by die Nilotic alluvium. 



casual observers, like the writer and other old residents whose mi- 
gratory and sporting habits take them into places where the mere 
traveller never dreams of going, this doctrine is implicitly believed, 
as agreeing with all their personal experience. We shall have occa- 
sion to return to the inundation of the river, and its prolific alluvium ; 
but, at present, attention is expressly soliciled to the following asser- 
tion, viz : that the Delta and Lower Egypt, having existed almost in 
their present phys^al state, since the remotest limit of known time, 
there was no obstacle of an aquatic or marshy nature, to preclude 
the immediate settlement of the first immigrants from Asia, in any 
portion thereof, that is by man inhabitable at the present hour. 

Lower Egypt and the Delta, the western province of Boheyreh, 
and the " land of Gofhen" — now the Sharkeeyeh, or eastern prov- 
ince — of yore the Tanitic and Bubastitc nomes — containing the rich- 
est portions of the alluvium, and blessed by the finest climate of the 
A'alley, would present to any new colony, agricultural or pastoral, 
inducements to sojourn within their area, superior to any that could 
be met with after passing Middle Egypt, or the Heptanomide. 

As from the Thebaid, you proceed upward along the Nile about 
Hadjar Silsilis, the features of the country on either bank undergo a 
change, from fertility to unfwiitfulness, from alluvial to hard rock, 
from cultivation to sterility : nor can it be said that any incitements 
to agriculturists, or any resources for abundant population, exist be- 
tween Hadjar Silsilis in lat. 25, and Khart obm about lat. 15, com- 
parable in value to those infinitely superior advantages to be found 
below the Thebaid ; and which increase in the exact ratio of your 
descent from Ethiopia to the Mediterranean. 

Between Hadjar Silsilis, where the sandstone formations rise per- 
pendicularly from the very edge of the river, and where the Nile is 
compressed into its narrowest Egyptian channel, and Khartoom — the 
juncture of the Bahr-el-abiad, or White Nile, with the Ba.hr-el-Jtz- 
rek, or Blue Nile — there is a length of some 600 miles, as the crow 
flies, and probably 1000 by the windings of the river. 

In this space, population is now, and ever has been, sparse ; with 
propensities more or less nomadic, and driven by natural causes to be 
rather pastoral than agricultural. If all communication of the in- 
habitants of this line, with the Egyptians on the north, and with the 
Nigritian nations on the south, were cut off; the mass of an abund- 
ant population would perish from starvation, as it would be impos- 
sible for them to raise a sufficiency of food for their sustenance. 
Certain spots, of no great extent, are, however, fertile, and may sup- 
port a population in direct proportion to their alluvial superficies. 
Such a spot was the Isle of Meroe in ancient days. But to suppose 
that, even thereon, the alluvial soil was ever so extensive as to fur- 
nish food for one million of inhabitants, would be contrary to geo- 
logical evidences, as well as to statistical facts. 

About Khartoom, and upward through Sennaar, the country could 
be rendered extremely prolific, if a radical change were effected in 
the governing power ; but, within a few decades of miles to the 
southward, commence the dense forests and rank vegetation of cen- 
tral Africa, with its inland seas, its annual rains — territories that are, 
and for more than four thousand years have been, inhabited srflely 
by Negro races ; where no living White man has ever penetrated 
500 miles ; and whence the White Nile transmits, from unknown 
sources, its ever-bountiful, ever- welcome floods. On these latitudes, 
all we can say is, that we literally know nothing ; but, we may rea- 
sonably infer much ; and conjecture anything we please. No hierolo- 
gist doubts, that the Pharaonic governments of Egypt were better 
acquainted with Nigritia 3,500 years ago, than any geographers of 
modern times, who have gone little beyond the legendary fragments 
bequeathed to us, 2000 years ago, by Eratosthenes. 

Now,Meroe, we are well aware, was a powerful state ; and, atone time, 
gave a dynasty of kings to Egypt ; but this was an accidental occur- 
rence, of brief duration, and in ages long posterior to primeval epochs 

Here pyramids attest remote antiquity. Temples bear witness of 
later grandeur. But the Isle of Meroe itself was no " officina gen- 
tium"-^no laboratory of nations. It held a small community. Its 
alluvial soil could merely support a population commensurate with 
its area, and both were small. Immigration created its social struc- 
ture — Commerce supported its vitality and protracted its duration — 
Religion sanctified its inhabitants, and protected their trade. Yet, 
notwithstanding all these attributes, Meroe bore no more relation in 
military strength, mass of population, or physical power, to Egypt ; 
than to the latter country was borne by the Oasis of Seewah, the 
templed sanctuary of Jupiter Ammon. 

In fact, between Meroe and the Oasis the case, is parallel. Both 
were fertile spots, of limited area, in the midst of deserts — wilder- 
nesses, affording secure retreats to wild and varied tribes of nomads. 
Both were equally exposed to their inroads : with this immense ad- 
vantage in favor of Meroe, that she possessed water-communication 
southward and northward ; and that, from her geographical position 
in relation to Abyssinia, whence journeyed Hindostanic and Arabian 
commerce ; to Nigritia, whence gold, and slaves, and African pro- 
ductions swelled her marts ; to Lybia, whither flowed the commercial 
stream toward Carthage and Europe ; and to Egypt, as her presiding 
genius, and " ministering angel," she had resources, of which the 
Oasis could only partially partake. 

Geographical position rendered both of them the concentrating 
points for the divergences of commerce, and the transit of free trade 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



45 



— made them the connecting links of vast countries, which were 
separated from each other by wildernesses of great extent. The 
political foresight of the ruling powers of Meroe and of the Oasis, 
made Religion the instrument of that control and dominion, which 
were denied to them by the limited number of their inhabitants, and 
the paucity of their respective inherent resources. And the roving 
Bisharree, the single-minded* Berber, the predatory Arab, and the 
Lybian archer, acknowledged the moral sway of the wise and sacred 
hierophants — flew to arms at their bidding to defend the temples, or 
%o harry a foe — spared the caravans, traversing their native wastes, 
out of pious respect, and superstitious fear, of the sacerdotal guardi- 
ans of commerce — and spell-bound, as it were, by the moral domin- 
ion of superior wisdom, cringed beneath the dictates of the " high 
priests of Amiin-Rk." 

It was not from their fertility, which was partial ; it was not from 
their military force, which was insignificant ; it was not from their 
population, which on their cultivable area was unimportant ; it was 
not from the inherent resources of their territory, which were inade- 
quate — that Meroe and the Oasis, rose supreme over the wilderness, 
a.rd ruled with despotic sway over the tribes of men to each respec- 
tively adjacent ; but, from the political wisdom of their respective 
governments. And, of what race were these sages, these deep- 
thinking politicians ? I answer, they were Caucasians ; they were 
white men ; they were Egyptians — the high-caste descendants of 
Ham, the Asiatic ! and their dominion over the varied nations, by 
whom they were surrounded, proceeded from the mental and physical 
superiority of the Caucasian over ail African aborigines. 

These Caucasians founded a pontificate at Meroe, and at the Oasis, 
originating in the same hierarchal doctrine, and supported by its ties 
with, and afliiiations proceeding from, the founders of Thebes and 
©f Memphis. Its sway was based upon the same political principles 
which have, through so many centuries, preserved Christian Rome, 
and not upon physical importance. The sources were political fore- 
thought, and intellectual discrimination ; its duration proceeded from 
their utility to the happiness of man, and was consecrated by their 
judicious and salutary protection of man's material interests. By a. 
silken web confining his physical powers of resistance, while by a 
moral influence it secured his obedience. 

When, therefore, Meroe and the Oasis arose, it became the inte- 
rest of every neighboring tribe and individual, to preserve institu- 
tions so beneficial to the prosperity of commerce, so conducive to 
the interchange of- social relations : nor did Meroe expire, till the 
doctrine changed, after a duration of 3000 years. 

I am perfectly aware of all the views that have been put forth by 
the learned Von Heeren, on these subjects ; and owe many of my 
conclusions to the light derived from him, and others ; but hiero- 
glyphical and craniological discoveries have served to dissipate some 
of their positions. That beautiful fabric of Professor Heeren, so 
astoundingly constructed from such crude materials, is correct in 
system ; but, in regard to Meroe, its application is now reversed ; for, 
instead of appertaining to primeval periods, it was not consolidated 
till some 700 B. C. ; and we are discussing subjects anteceding this 
date by twenty centuries. 

It is said by Diodorus, that Egypt held about eight millions of 
population, from the 1st Cataract to the sea. At present, owing to 
the benign rule of Mohammed Ali, there are less than two millions. 
In Nubia, Dongola, Meroe, as far as Kharto&m, it seems questionable, 
if, including the nomads of the adjacent deserts, there ever were as 
mai.y as one million of inhabitants. At present, there are less. 
Even these must look to Egypt, or Nigritia, for the bulk of aliment ; 
for there is not alluvium enough in these regions now, whereon to 
raise a sufficiency of substance, from Asswan to Khartoom. And 
yet, every year the Nile has brought down additional soil, so that the 
alluvium is greater now than formerly. Meroe was a province of 
Egypt for 2000 years ; for, how could the Pharaonic armies have 
conquered Negro nations without passing by Meroe ? Armies in 
Ethiopia must follow the river ; else they can find no sufficiency of 
water ; and following the river, to reach Negro nations, not nearer 
to Egypt than lat. 15, they must unavoidably have passed by Meroe. 
Negros are not a migratory race in Ethiopic latitudes, and only come 
northward by compulsion. 

We have gone as deeply as was necessary into the subject before 
us to show, that the case of Meroe is parallel with that of the Oasis. 
No one, I presume, will think it possible that the original source of 
the Egyptians was at the Oasis of Seewah. Scripturally, cthno- 
graphically, geologically, philologically, geographically, historically, 
and monumentally, it is as unreasonable to make Meroe in Ethiopia 
the birth-place of the Egyptians. It is vain to quote Herodotus or Dio- 
dorus, Eratosthenes or Strabo, on questions whereon they could learn 
but little, inasmuch as the events precede them by 2000 years. With 
these classical writers, as with some others in modern times, it has 
been customary to take " omne ignotum pro magnifico. " 

Sufficient has been said, to evince the stand we take in early Egyp- 
tian history, in order that we may not find ourselves behind the age in 
the continual progress of discovery ; and, in the same mode that we as- 
serted that the Delta was inhabitable at the time of Mizraim's arrival, 
bo now we still maintain, that Meroe and Ethiopia were unqualified, 



* Termed, in derision, by the Arabs, " Aboo-»hugle-wahed"— fathers of one job— in 
consequence of their national stolidity, and their inuhility to entertain more than one 
Idea at a time. 



geographically and geologically, to nurture the primeval parrjnts of the 
noble race, whom we now know to have been high-caste Caucasians. 
A point has been reached in this exposition, where, before pro- 
ceeding further, it is imperative on me to acknowledge the source, 
whence I derive these views of primeval Nilotic history ; and it is 
with cheerful readiness that I indicate my valued friend, Dr Samuei, 
Geo. Mor.TON, of Philadelphia, as my authority for the positive de- 
monstration of the Caucasian race, and Asiatic origin of the ancient 
Egyptians. 

Under the title of" Crania iEgyptiaca,' has appeared from Dr. Mor- 
ton's pen, a memoir, wherein the Caucasian race of the early Pha- 
raonic Egyptians is, for the first time, demonstrated, by a mass of 
craniological, anatomical, historical and monumental evidence. I 
have had the full advantage of Dr. Morton's revision of whatever on 
this subject is herein advanced ; while, so far as my name may be 
associated with the "Crania ^Egyptiaca," it need only be said that 1 
derive the original idea, all the craniological facts in its support, and 
by far the greater portion of the argument herein put forward, from 
the perusal of this work no less than, from these sub- 
jects having, for six years, formed the substance of much epistolary 
intercourse, and for many months, the constant theme of conversa- 
tions between its author and myself. 

Were it not for the conviction, thus acquired from the incontro- 
vertible array of facts set forth in the " Crania ^Egyptiaca," (facts 
hitherto unpublished by any writer in the world ; and, with the ex- 
ception of Sir. J. G. Wilkinson and one or two others, heretofore 
contested by all hieroglyphical authorities,) I should'<tnot rrave ven. 
tured to take up against the opinions of learned and unlearned, the 
subject of the Caucasian race of the Egyptians; but reposing in con. 
fidence upon the labors of one so eminently qualified to decide, I am 
not apprehensive of the consequences in the minds of those who 
will peruse the work thus announced. Furthermore, its author is 
not responsible for any deviations from his views I may, perhaps 
erroneously, have adopted. 

To show, however, that an adequate foundation exists for the novel 
assertions I have made, I extract from the *Crania iEgyptiaca, a few 
paragraphs which may serve to illustrate the views of the author of 
that work ; merely premising that the heads employed in Dr. Mor- 
ton's researches, were obtained by me from seven sepulchral local- 
ities in Egypt and Nubia. 

Dr. Morton remarks, that the entire series of one hundred crania 
" may be referred to two of the great races of men, the Caucasian 
and the Negro, although there is a remarkable disparity in the 
number of each. The Caucasian heads also vary so much among 
themselves as to present several different types of this race, which 
may, perhaps, be appropriately grouped under the following desig- 
nations : — 

CAUCASIAN RACE. 

" 1. The ^Pelasgic Type. In this division I place those heads 
which present the finest conformation, as seen in the Caucasian na- 
tions of western Asia, and middle and southern Europe. The 
Pelasgic lineaments are familiar to us in the beautiful models of 
Grecian art, which are remarkable for the volume of the head in 
comparison with that of the face, the large facial angle, and the 
symmetry and delicacy of the whole osteological structure. 

" 2. The Semitic Type, as seen in the Hebrew communities, is 
marked by a comparatively receding forehead, long, arched and 
very prominent nose, a marked distance between the eyes, a low, 
heavy, broad and strong and often harsh development of the whole 
facial structure. 

" 3. The Egyptian form differs from the Pelasgic in having a nar- 
rower and more receding forehead, while the face being more prom- 
inent, the facial angle is consequently less. The nose is straight 
or aquiline, the face angular, the features often sharp, and the hair 
uniformly long, soft, and curling. 

NEGRO RACE. 

" The true Negro conformation requires no comment ; but it is 
necessary to observe that a practised eye readily detects a few heads 
with decidedly mixed characters, in which those of the Negro pre- 
dominate. For these I propose the names of Negroid crania ; for 
while the osteological development is more or less that of the Negro, 
the hair is long, but sometimes harsh, thus indicating that combina- 
tion of features which is familiar in the mulatto grades of the pres- 
ent day. 

" The following is a Tabular View of the whole series of crania, 
arranged, in the first place, according to their sepulchral localities, 
and in the second, in reference to their national affinities." The 
Table speaks for itself. " It shows that more than eight tenths of 
the crania pertain to the unmixed Caucasian race ; that the Pelas- 
gic form is as one to one and two thirds, and the Semitic form one 
to eight, compared to the Egyptian : that one twentieth of the whole 
is composed of heads in which there is a trace of Negro and other 
exotic lineage ; that the Negroid conformation exists in eight in- 

*Crania iEGTPTUCA, or Observations on Egyptian Ethnography, 
derived from Anatomy, History and the Monuments. By Samuel 
George Morton, M. D. 4to Philadelphia, 1844, J. Penington 

" fl do not use this term with othnographic precision ; but mere* 
ly to indicate the most perfect type of cranio-facial outline." 



46 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



etanoes, thus constituting about one twentieth part of the whole ; 
and finally, that the series contains a single unmixed Negro." 



"Ethnographic Tabic of one hundred ancient E 


ryptian Crania 
















5! 


;r 


Sepulchral] 


Egyp- 










as. 


% 


Localities. 


No. 


tian. 


Pelasgic. 


Semitic. 


Mixed 


Negroid. 


p 


— 


Memphis, 


26 


7 


16 


1 


1 


1 


Maabdeh, 


4 


1 


1 






2 






Abydos, 


4 


3 


1 


1 










Thebes, 


55 


30 


10 


4 


4 


5 




o 


Ombos, 


3 


3 














Fhite, 


4 


2 


1 








1 




Debod, 4 


4 














100 


49 


29 


6 


5 1 8 


1 


2 



From these anion infinity of other details embraced in Dr. Mor- 
ton's work, he has drawn the following among other conclusions : — 

" The valley of the Nile, both in Egypt and Nubia, was original- 
ly peopled by a branch of the Caucasian race. 

" These primeval people, since called the Egyptians, were the 
Mizraimites of Scripture, the posterity of Ham, and directly affilia- 
ted with the Libyan family of nations. 

" The Austral-Egyptian or Meroite communities were an Indo- 
Arabian stock engrafted on the primitive Libyan inhabitants. 

" Besides these exotic sources of population, the Egyptian race 
was at different periods modified by the influx of the Caucasian na- 
tions of Asia and Europe, — Pelasgi, or Hellenes, Scythians and 
Phenicians. 

" The Copts, in part at least, are a mixture of the Caucasian and 
the Negro, in extremely variable proportions. 

" Negroes were numerous in Egypt, but their social position in 
ancient times was the same as it now is, that of servants and slaves. 

" The present Fellahs are the lineal and least mixed descendants 
of the ancient Egyptians ; and the latter are collaterally represented 
by the Tuariks, Kabyles, Siwahs, and other remains of the Libyan 
family of nations'. 

" The modern Nubians, with a few exceptions, are not the descen- 
dants of the monumental Ethiopians, but a variously mixed race of 
Arabs and Negroes. 

" The physical or organic characters which distinguish the several 
races of men, are as old as the oldest records of our species." 

The Scriptures inform us, that Mizraim came from the banks of 
the Euphrates into Africa, and that his descendants colonized Lower 
Egypt. 

To bring the ancestors of the Egyptians from Ethiopia, leads to 
consequences irreconcilable with primeval biblical migrations. Ham 
and his son were indisputably Caucasians — to find, therefore, that 
their Egyptian descendants were Caucasians also, is perfectly in ac- 
cordance with nature, and with Scripture. 

Lower Egypt and the Delta, would naturally be the region most 
suited to agriculture ; and contrary again to the general current of 
opinion, it was here that the earliest Egyptians settled — it was here, 
that the most ancient cities arose — and here, that the most ancient 
monumental piles still remain, to attest the correctness of the asser- 
tion. 

The erection, in Lower Egypt, of the most ancient monuments 
we encounter, does not at all impede the migration of the Caucasian 
race, at a very early period into the Thebaid, or even as far as Meroe ; 
nor is the inferior relative antiquity of those vast edifices, that proud- 
ly demand, for Thebes, and the Thebaid, an age nearly parallel to 
those of Lower Egypt, devoid of explanation on other grounds ; but, 
t is an indisputable fact, since the application of the Champollion 
jests to any of the ruins in the Nilotic valley, that the most ancient 
festiges preserved to us lie north; and the earliest extant are the 
Memphite pyramids ; while those found to the southward, are com- 
paratively, more recent ; with the doubtful exception of the pyramids 
of Meroe in Ethiopia, which will be attended to in due course. 

In the interval previous to the accession of Menes, and subsequent 
to the dispersion of mankind from Shinar, must that wandering tribe 
of Caucasians, who settled permanently in the valley of the Nile, 
have entered Egypt from Asia ; and although we possess not the 
slightest account of the time, beyond that of its occurrence between 
Noah and Abraham, and none of the mode in which this march 
must have taken place, from Assyria into Egypt ; yet, the fact of the 
Asiatic origin, and Caucasian race of the early Egyptians being de- 
clared in the Bible, and proved by anatomy, with monumental and 
historical corroborations ; it may be desirable to inquire how far geo- 
graphical facilities smoothed their path, and whether topographical 
circumstances, in connection with localities in Egypt, admit of and 
confirm their introduction. 

According to the facts, set forth in Morton's "Crania jEgyptiaca," 
we find the Caucasians occupying Egypt, at the remotest time we 
can descry; and any errors unintentionally committed in speculating 
upon the road they took from the Asiatic continent to Egypt, will 
not affect the fact of their journey. 

Whether their progress was slow, such as a pastoral people (we 



may infer they were at that primeval time) encumbered with families 
and flocks, would necessarily adopt ; or whether it was the rapid 
march of men driven by political convulsions, or family feuds to seek 
safety in countries remote from their first origin, are questions in 
themselves hypothetical, though the former speculation has most ol 
probability. Whether their migration, from east to west, was ante- 
rior or posterior to the dispersion of Babel, I leave others to deter- 
mine ; in either case, we may recognize the all-wise hand of Provi- 
dence, accomplishing by natural instruments, and according to im- 
mutable organic laws, the object of man's creation. Whether, prior 
to their entry, they possessed any information concerning the fertility 
and salubrity of that smiling valley-land, whereon the " sacred Nile" 
by its periodical inundations, spreads its rich alluvium, must ever 
remain doubtful. 

That they had their women with them is certain ; as they preserved 
their blood, pure and intact, from amalgamation with African abo- 
rigines ; excepting, in partial instances, of much later times, proceed- 
ing from very natural causes, and affecting mainly those provinces 
which were adjacent to these Africans ; but no more influencing the. 
mass of population in Lower and Middle Egypt, at any period, than 
is apparent, or usual, as I have before remarked, with the present 
Fellah and Arab inhabitants of these districts at this day. 

The simplest view of the case would lead one to infer, that, in 
proportion as the increase of human and animal population rendered 
the area of Assyria too limited for the peaceful attainment of a 
sufficiency of food, small parties, offsets from the patriarchal tree, 
wandered, like the Bedawees of the present day, pasturing their cat- 
tle in search of forage, along the valleys of Palestine. The van- 
guard of these nomads, pushed forward constantly by the advance 
of later separations from the main body, or induced by other contin- 
gences, which we may conjecture, but cannot define, crossed the 
small desert, which even at the present day, in winter, offers every 
facility for similar migrations, and reached the valley of the Nile, 
somewhere in the vicinity of Pelusium. 

Once in the land of Goshen, it may be readily imagined, whoever 
came the first would not be long in inviting his friends and relations 
to join him (and to sojourn permanently) in, what must have been 
to a herdsman, as it is the present day to the agriculturist, a terres- 
trial paradise. Similar causes always produce similar effects. Po- 
pulation increased, and migration continued, until every atom of the 
then alluvial soil between the deserts of Suez and of Lybia, and 
from the sea beach to that extreme point, where an African climate 
becomes mortiferous to the white man (which region commences 
about the 16th degree of latitude in Ethiopia above Egypt,) was 
colonized by the Asiatic Caucasians ; and, in those remote countries, 
by their intermixed descendants. As population increased, the 
herdsman was forced, by interest, and want of pasture room, to be- 
come a farmer ; and the first spade struck into the yielding black mud 
of the receding Nile, was the first step toward that civilization and 
power which, for 2000 years, made Egypt the greatest country of the 
earth. 

I deem it requisite only to allude to the prevalent, but erroneous 
notion of the African origin of the ancient Egyptians, in so far as to 
express my disbelief of the possibility, that the Caucasian route from 
Asia to Egypt, could have lain, in those primeval times, across the 
Red Sea, at the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, or higher up. Let any one 
look at the map, and measure the distance from Assyria to Meroe, 
by that road — let him pause and consider the vast geographical ob- 
structions to be encountered in Arabia : the time it would take to 
overcome them; and then let him consider the little chronological 
space we have for the events that occurred in Egypt between Miz- 
raim and Abraham ; and allow, that without overthrowing Scripture, 
this doctrine cannot be maintained. 

From Assyria and the plains of Shinar, even at this day (aside 
from human insurmountable difficulties) the journey through Arabia 
across the Red Sea, into Abyssinia, over the deserts of Catareff, to 
Meroe, and thence down the Nile, 1600 miles, to Lower Egypt and 
the sea-board, would be almost impossible to a family accompanied 
by children and by flocks. It may be objected, that this migration 
was not immediate, but may have occupied ages. In that case, my 
reply is, that their journey must have been rapid, and accomplished 
within a few years ; or we must reject even the Septuagint chro- 
nology as insufficient. To pass over the Red Sea with flocks and 
large family incumbrances, implies vessels; whence could they ob- 
tain timber on the western Arabian coast ? how procure materials 
for naval construction and outfit, in those primeval times ? 

A mere glance at the map of Abyssinia will present obstacles, 
after their supposititious arrival on the western shore of the Red 
Sea, to render their progress toward Meroe and Ethiopia, anything 
but desirable ; nor is there any point, whereon the advocates of the 
African theory can hang a reasonable hypothesis, since the results 
obtained by Dr. Morton, and detailed in his " Crania ^Egyptiaca." 
Asiatic in their origin, springing from the same stock as Shem 
and Japheth, and Caucasian in their osteological conformation, the 
Egyptians were white men, of no darker hue than a pure Arab, a 
Jew, or a Phcunieian ; and it is Quite as justifiable, and equally rea- 
sonable, to draw the dusky and the sable inhabitants of Africa from 
Shem, the type of the Hebrews and the Arabs ; or from Japheth, the 
type of the Europeans, as to derive the Berbers and the Negroes from 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



47 



Ham, whom Scripture tells us was the parent of the Egyptians ; and 
as such, Ham must have been an Asiatic and Caucasian, since we 
know positively, that his Egyptian descendants were Caucasians, as 
pure-b-Jooded in origin as ourselves. 

The climate of Egypt will never change a Caucasian into a Negro, 
a black into a white man ; and we have yet to learn what effect cli- 
mate may have had, in every other latitude, on the physical organi- 
zation of man, on the material variation of his hair and skin, or on 
his osteological and eraniological conformation. 

How the real African aborigines — the Berbers and the Negroes, 
were disseminated over Ethiopia and Nigritia, is foreign to my dis- 
course, nor do I presume to offer an hypothesis. 

It does not seem possible (although the men are excellent swim- 
mers) that they, and still less their females and children, swam across 
the Red Sea ! and, if it be necessary to import these African races 
from the Asiatic hive, the same reasons which render the Isthmus of 
Suez the route the most natural to the Caucasian children of Ham, 
may likewise have served for the ancestors of the Berbers and the 
Negroes. 

Equally unnecessary does it seem, to speculate whether Egypt was 
inhabited by any or by what tribe of man, at the period of Mizraim's 
immigration; because such a speculation would imply the possibility 
of the existence of other people at the time of Noah's descent from 
the ark — a supposition hitherto irreconcilable with all we learn from 
Scripture. These are problems still insoluble by human reason — 
their results, such as are developed to us, point out the miraculous 
ordinations of the Creator without unfolding his inscrutable ways — 
and I again repeat, there is no more biblical reason or authority to 
derive the Negroes from Ham, than from Shem or Japheth ; and if 
climate is to have effected the change, the same causes must have 
produced the same effects, operating on the same physical principles; 
so that it is just as probable that the Caucasian Shem or the Cauca- 
sian Japheth was the parent of African races, as the Caucasian Ham, 
whose children, the Egyptians, were like their father and his blood- 
brothers, Asiatics and Caucasians. 

Finally, it seems more natural, that a tribe, coming from Asia and 
adopting Egypt as its resting place, should have entered that country 
by the route which, from the earliest times, has been the high road 
of nations between the Asiatic and African continents. It was by 
the Isthmus of Suez that the Hykshos, the Scythian shepherd kings 
of remote antiquity, came and were expelled ; this Isthmus was like- 
wise the beaten road of the Hebrews from Abraham to the Exodus, 
as it is at the present day between Jerusalem and Egypt. It served 
the Egyptians under the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies, as the route 
for their military expeditions and for all commercial intercourse with 
Asia. 

The Persians, under Cambyses and Artaxerxes Ochus, Alexander 
with his Macedonian phalanx, the Saracens under Aamer, and the 
Ottomans under Sooltan Seleem, used it as their undeviating highway 
into and out of Egypt ; while from the most ancient postdiluvian 
period to the present hour, it has afforded and will continue to afford, 
the same facilities between Asia and Africa, that induced me to select 
it as the route of the Caucasian family of Mizraim. 

An important confirmation of the Asiatic origin of the Egyptians, 
and, indeed, of all the views herein put forward, is to be derived 
from the results established by the learned ethnographer, philologist, 
and critical hierologist, Dr. Leipsius ; who has proved the affinities 
between the Indo-Germanic, Semitic and Coptic languages, to » be 
identical, proceeding from their common origin in one primeval 
source. This discovery puts the seal of authenticity even as to Ian- 
guage upon the Asiatic origin of the early Egyptians ; while it goes 
far to explain all Coptic linguistical affinities with Hebrew, Arabic, 
Sanscrit, and other Asiatic tongues. 

We have brought the children of Ham, under Mizraim, into Lower 
Egypt : here they settle ; here they multiply ; and hence they spread 
all over the alluvial soil of Egypt, from the Mediterranean to Meroe, 
following the Nile, in a natural course of migration and settlement. 
Agriculture supersedes all pastoral habits ; cities and orderly commu- 
nities take the place of the tents and the roving irregularities of the 
Nomad. The progress of civilization must have been so amazingly 
rapid, that to preserve our confidence in Scriptural chronology, we 
are forced to conclude (as stated in a previous chapter) that the chil- 
dren of Ham brought along with them all the knowledge and experi- 
ence accumulated during antediluvian periods from Adam to Noah, 
and by this second father of the human race, transmitted to the Egyp- 
tians. We can form but little idea of its original amount ; but, within 
a few generations from the immigration of Mizraim, we find monu- 
ments that attest a skill in the arts, an acquaintance with practical 
sciences, a profound knowledge of political economy and principles 
of government, an extent of civilization of every kind, equal (save in 
the luxury and refinements superfluous to the necessities of human 
life) to the extreme civilization and well-regulated social system ex- 
isting in Egypt at any future period. There are very few arts or 
sciences, the early antiquity of which astounds us on the monuments 
of Egypt, but must have been familiar to the Egyptians prior to the 
erection of the pyramids. As we proceed, we shall mention some 
of the most prominent. 

The time and the increasing ratio of population, are equally unde- 
finablcjwith this exception, that, taking the Deluge somewhere about 



3200 B. C, on the authority of the Septuagint, and the immigration 
of Mizraim into Egypt in the third generation after the Flood, we 
have a vacuum of about four hundred years ; which we may legiti- 
mately fill with all these preparatory labors. The reason I pretend 
even to guess at the interval (which is purely conjectural, and merely 
possible) is, that the events which I shall soon show to have occurred 
subsequently, occupy all the space left, from about 2700 B. C. to the 
present year. It is with extreme difficulty that, even then, Egyptian 
chronological facts can be circumscribed within this limited area. 

Traditionary legends, floating in the works of Greek writers on 
Egypt, inferences gleaned from the mythological doctrines that wrap 
truth in the garb of fable, and deductions legitimately drawn from 
the monuments, enable us to consider it probable, that a priestly aris 
tocracy was the first form of general government in Egypt ; creates 
gradually out of the union of those patriarchal heads of villages, who 
probably governed, each his own family, in the same manner that 
an Arab tribe of the present day is ruled by its own Sheykh and the 
elders of the community. This would be perfectly in accordance 
with Oriental and Asiatic customs, that have varied but little since 
the patriarchal ages in Lower Asia and Arabia. 

A hierarchy appears to have been the first form of general govern- 
ment adopted by the Egyptians of that primeval period ; which we 
feel persuaded preceded the establishment of a monarchy. This 
hierarchy, we presume to have commenced within a few generations 
of Mizraim's immediate descendants ; to have increased in power 
until the accession of Menes, the first Pharaoh ; and to have ruled 
Egypt during the conjectural period of about 400 years. 

It is here necessary to explain, that, from the earliest times, the 
Caucasian inhabitants of the Valley of the Nile regulated their social 
system by the division of castes ; which, however, must not be judged 
of by the notions we derive from India ; for the Egyptian bystem of 
caste was merely a division of classes, without any of those rigidities 
to this day practiced in Hindostan. 

From the primitive simplicity of a patriarchal government, whereiu 
the eldest of the tribe governs by general consent, as a father controls 
the domestic welfare of his family, the gradual increase of the num- 
bers of these elders, in proportion to the increase of their respective 
families, probably suggested to them the propriety of union ; and the 
Egyptians, essentially a religious community, bowed beneath the 
mild rule of a theocracy. This theocracy, formed by the union of 
the elders, was the first form of general government, in which secular 
and ecclesiastical interests, at first submitted to the control of the 
aged, become in a short time a hereditary right in certain families ; 
where the character of priest gave power, independently of the age 
of the individual. 

Champollion Figeac has so clearly expressed the most accurate 
views on this particular head, that I will adopt his language. 

"A theocracy, or a government of priests, was the first known to 
the Egyptians ; and it is necessary to give this word priests, the ac- 
ceptation that it bore in remote times, when the ministers of reli- 
gion were also the ministers of science (and knowledge ;) so that 
they united in their own persons two.of ihc noblest missions with 
which man can be invested, the worship of the Deity, and the cul- 
tivation of intelligence. 

" This theocracy was necessarily despotic. On the other hand, 
with regard to despotism, (we add these reflections, to reassure the 
readers too ready to take alarm at the social condition of the early 
Egyptians,) there are so many different kinds of despotism, that the 
Egyptians had to accept one of them, as an unavoidable condition. 
In fact, there is in a theocratic government the chance of religious 
despotism ; in a monarchy, the chance of a military despotism ; in 
an aristocracy, or oligarchy, the chance of a feudal despotism ; in a 
republic, the chance of a democratic despotism — everywhere a chance 
of oppression. The relative good will be where these several chances 
are most limited." And, with respect to the form of government 
best adapted to the social happiness of man, opinions are as varied 
as are the countries, and human races on the earth. That institu- 
tion which is admirably suited to Europeans, may be odious and de- 
leterious to Orientals. 

In Egypt, under the primitive theocratic government, the nation was 
divided into three distinct classes — the priests, the military, and the 
people ; an arrangement whereby the first two, the privileged classes, 
conspired to hold the third, and most numerous, in subjection. 

" Time and the hour run through the roughest day :" and when a 
political evil becomes insupportable, nature has provided that it shall 
work its own cure. 

The progress which time inevitably realizes everywhere, effected 
in Egypt a notable alteration in this state of things. 

A rivalry sprang up between the two ruling classes. The military 
grew tired of blindly submitting to ecclesiastical sway, without par- 
taking of their full share of control. The physical power being in 
Ihe hands of the military chiefs, a revolution was the consequence 
of these jealousies. 

A military chieftain seized the sceptre of dominion ; established 
a royal government, and made the throne hereditary, through his 
line of descendants. A soldier of fortune, but a statesman in mind, 
changed and ameliorated the social condition of Egypt ; and con. 
secrating the progress the nation had already made, perpetuated it 
through a long succession of after centuries. 



48 



ANCIENT 



• 
EGYPT. 




M 



founded with Mizraim, or rather, according to 
Syncellus, with Mestraim. 



This chief was Menes of History — Menei, I cessary to enumerate or detail them ; because an acquaintance with 
who walks with Amun," of the sculptures ; the greater portion will be rather a consequence of the hi&toBy of 
who, from the days of Syncellus, has been con- 1 Egypt, as I am about to unfold it ; while I prefer leaving wlmtover 

may now be omitted to a future summary. It is necessary first to 
establish the chronological scale of hieroglyphs developments, 
before discussing points, which in date are dependent on monu- 
mental evidence. 

The fragments we possess of ancient Egyptian history, in the 
writings of early travellers and chroniclers, permit our dividing the 
dynasties, of Egypt into three categories, viz: 



V-^I/ I would here observe, that if ancient Egypt 

"™ 1 ^" was ever called Mestraea, we have no evidence 

T ^ - ei. of the name in hieroglyphics : although it may 
KA -Ti fc | be derived from two Egyptian roots, and com- 

pounded of Mes, begotten, and Re, the Sun. If Mizraim be Mes- 
traim he was certainly not Menes ; and if Menes be Mestraim, he 
was certainly not Mizraim, who preceded Menes, by at least 400 
years.. We fall into palpable anachronisms in endeavoring to make 
one man out of two personages, distinct in time, in name, in attri- 
butes, and in everything else. Brevity requires that I should limit 
my arguments simply to the exposition of this fact ; by not observing 
which, ancient and modern writers, (with a few exceptions among 
the hieroglyphists, including the learned chronologist, Dr. Hales,) 
have rendered early Egyptian history a chaos of anachronisms. 

This grand political revolution had, over the social welfare of the 
nation, an influence most salutary and durable. From a sacerdotal 
despotism, that in the name of Heaven exacted implicit obedience to 
the privileged members of the hierarchy, the Egyptians passed under 
the authority of a tempered civil monarchy, and acquired a constitu- 
tion that rendered them free as well as happy. 

The chief of the state was king, or Pharaoh ; and his power was 
transmitted, in the order of primogenitureship to his male children ; 
to his daughters, if he had no sons ; or to his brothers or sisters, if 
his direct line should, by absence of offspring, be broken. There 
was no Salic law in Egypt ; and in a country where females were 
admitted to a full participation in all legitimate privileges with man — 
where women were queens in their own right — royal priestesses from 
their birth ; and otherwise treated as females are, in all civilized and 
Christian countries ; there were none of these social restrictions 
that elsewhere enslaved the minds, or constrained the persons of the 
gentler sex. 

We have the most positive and incontrovertible evidence, in a 
series of monuments coeval with Egyptian events for 2500 years, to 
prove that the female sex in Egypt was honored, civilized, educated, 
and as free as among ourselves ; and this is the most unanswerable 
proof of the high civilization of that ancient people. This is the 
strongest point of distinction between the Egyptian social system of 
ancient times, and that of any other eastern nation. Even among 
the Hebrews, the Jewish female was never placed in relation to man, 
in the same high position as her more happy and privileged sister en- 
joyed in Egypt. And if, at the present day, Mahommedanism has 
overthrown all the rights of the female sex in the valley of the Nile ; 
or if, in any ancient or modern nation, females were or are oppressed, 
it was certainly not from the early children of Ham that they took 
their precedent ; not from the primitive Caucasian inhabitants of 
Egypt, that the enslavers of the gentler sex received their lesson. 
Some of the evidence for this assertion will appear as we proceed ; 
but, in the mean time, let us render to the ancient Egyptians the 
proud honor of being the first nation who appreciated the moral ca- 
pabilities, social virtues, intellectual attributes, and civil rights of 
woman. 

In the procession, Tomb of Gurnah, the gallantry of the Egyp- 
tians is proved, by two queens — Aahopht and Aahmes-Nofreari 
(queens of Amunoph 1st.) taking precedence of the kings ; and this 
in a private tomb ! 

The royal authority was not absolute. The sacerdotal order pre- 
served in the councils, their rightful positions — the military were 
there to maintain order and to strengthen the monarchy, but were 
cifo'zen-soldiers ; and in the great assemblies, termed panegyrics, 
wherein all religious, warlike, civil, administrative, commercial, poli- 
tical, statistical, internal and external affairs were periodically 
'.reated ; the priests, the military, the corporations, and the people 
were represented, and the interests of all were protected, according 
\y the wise institutions of the Egyptians. The classes of Egypt may 
be divided into four great castes ; but not, as before said, on the 
rigid system of the Hindoos. These were the priests, the soldiers, 
the agriculturalists, and the tradesmen of all denominations ; each 
subdivided into more or less categories — but no Egyptian was an 
outcast from civil rights in this world, or debarred from eternal hap- 
piness in the world to come, save by his own misconduct ; and in 
the latter respect, the king and the peasant were equally amenable 
to the inexorable judgment of Amenti — " the future state," and 
ultimate tribunal. 

With the accession of Menes, dates the consolidation of the inter- 
nal polity, and of those wise and well-regulated institutions, that 
astonish us by their perfection and practical utility, as much as by 
the remoteness of their antiquity. I do not, at present, deem it ne- 



Jst— The rule of the Gods — or Auritae ; 
2nd— The rule of the Demigods — or Mestraeans ; 
3rd — The rule of thirty-one successive human dynasties — or 
Egyptians. 

I. The Gods. Under this designation ;t may be plausibly con- 
jectured, that the ancient Egyptians, in their legendary tales to the 
Greeks, classed those primeval events, which are known to us as 
an'ediluvian. It is also curious, that " Cronus, and the other twelve 
divinities," who are said to have reigned during 3984 years, do not 
very widely differ in number from the patriarchal generations from 
Adam to Noah. The sun, in hieroglyphics, being a type of Horus, 
which is of the same root as Ra, Ouro, Aur, gave probably the n-ame 
of Auritae to the Egyptians, as the " children of the sun." The word 
Auritae has been referred to the " Golden age," of heathen mytho- 
logy, but the term aurum itself is derived from that universal root 
aur, the sun, which reverses the current derivation. 

II. The Demigods — or Mestraeans, may be explained hypotheti- 
cally, as referring to those pristine postdiluvian times, which em- 
brace the dark period from Noah to the accession of Menes : a period, 
according to my view, of some 500 years ; in the first century of 
which Mizraim may have colonized Egypt. The term Mestraean, 
viewed, as above stated, in its meaning of " begotten of the sun," 
again sends us back to the primitive aur. 

HI. The Men, or Egyptians, commence their rule with Menes, 
the first Pharaoh, and continue through 31 successive dynasties, to 
the invasion of Alexander the Great, in B. C. 332. From this era, 
history and the monuments enable us to define the period of the 
Lagidi, or Ptolemies, down to 29 B. C. The hieroglyphics thence 
bring us down to Caracalla, the Roman Emperor, when this mode 
of writing ceased, about 215 after the Christian era, and when the 
race of Ham ceased to be politically recognizable. 

In regard to the reign of the gods, and the demigods, however, 
one point is very clearly established by Sir J. G. Wilkinson; which 
is, that the Egyptians never had the folly or impiety to trace their 
own origin to deities. On the contrary, they ridiculed the Greeks, 
for supposing themselves to be a heaven-descended race, in a right 
line of succession ; for the Egyptians were a practical people, and a 
sensible. 

When the priests showed to Herodotus a series of 345 images of 
men, who had successively filled the office of high priest ; as, at a 
former period, they had exhibited a similar set of portraits to Heca- 
teeus — they laughed at Hecataeus, who claimed a deity for his 16th 
ancestor ; and told Herodotus, that " each was a Piromis, son of a 
Piromis." Piromis being the Greek corruption of the Coptic Pi.romi, 
the man ; and the strict meaning of the sentence being " a man, son 
of a man ;" we have herein an indisputable proof of Herodotus's 
igrftrance of the commonest words of the native language of a 
country, concerning which he wrote so largely, and so very learn- 
edly. His ignorance was natural enough, but his presumption may 
be derided by us, as much as his credulity was the sport of the 
humorous Egyptians. 

When, therefore, in a document, called by Syncellus " the Old 
Egyptian Chronicle," the rule of gods and demigods on earth, pre. 
cedes the reign of human monarchs ; we must make full allowance 
for the errors of Greek translators, rendering into their own tongue, 
and adapting to Hellenic comprehension, the lofty ideas, and mystic 
designations of the Egyptians. Nor must we accuse the dead, whose 
monuments present a mute refutation of Grecian fallacies, of en- 
tertaining fantasies, such as are handed down to us by Herodotus. 
Under the guise of mystic attributes, and through the medium of 
symbols, the veiled truths of which were not divulged to the " impure 
foreigner," the Egyptian gods and demigods, of the Old Chronicle, 
probably, are nothing more than our patriarchal antediluvian and 
postdiluvian generations. Bigotry and fanaticism, among the early 
Christians, prevented their perceiving that every stigma cast on the 
pure doctrines of primeval antiquity would detract from the au 
thority of Moses ; who, as before stated, was undoubtedly " learned 
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." 

I now proceed to lay before the reader, two tables of Egyptian 
history — one the Old Chronicle ; and the other compiled from 
Manetho by Rosellini and ChampolLion Figeac, \Hith a few addi- 
tions of my own. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



49 



EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES. 



THE OLD EGYPTIAN CHRONICLE. 

1st. Reign of the Gods — or Auritje — Antediluvian period ? 

Barbarismus ? Years. 

To Hephaestus — Vulcan — Pthah, the Creator — is assigned 

no time, as he is apparent both by day and night, 00,000 
Helius — the Sun — the son of Hephsestus — reigned three 

myriads of years, equivalent to 30,000 

Cronus, and the other twelve Divinities reigned together, 3,984 



Gods reigned — years, 33,984 



2nd. — Reign of the Demi-Gods — or Mestrjuans — 
Postdiluvian period — Scythismus ? 

The eight kings — Demi-Gods — (or Mizraimites ?) reigned 
together, 

3rd. — Reign of Men — or Egyptians — Hellenismus? 

The 15 generations (families, dynasties, or royal houses?) 
comprised in the Cynic Cycle — or Sothic period — 
reigned, 443 

The remaining 15 dynasties of kings — commen- 
cing with the 16th dynasty and ending with 
the 30th dynasty — reigned together, 1881 

Egyptians reigned, 



Years. 



217 



These years 36,525 — end before Christ, 359. 



Years, 



2324 
36,525 



MANETHO'S EGYPTIAN CONSECUTIVE DYNASTIES.. 



ORDER OF 


THEIR ORIGIN. 


NUMBER OF 


TOMBKR OF NAMES 
FOUND IN HIERO- 


LENGTH OF 


BEGAN BEFORE 


POSSIBLE 


MONUMENTAL 


MISCELLANEA. 


DYNASTIES. 




KINGS. 


GLYPHICS 
1841. 


UP TO 


THEIR REIGNS. 


CHRIST. 


REDUCTION. 


PARALLELS. 




1st. 


Thinite, 


8 




1 


Years, 252 


Years, 5867 ] 


3.C.2715? 


• 


After Flood 439 


2nd. 


Tanite, 


9 




? 


» 297 


" 5615 


^ 




[years ? 


3rd. 


Memphite, 


8 




? 


" 197 


" 5318 








4th. 


Memphite, 


8 




4 


" 448 


" 5121 




Pyra'idsf MeIoe ? 




5th. 


Elephantinite, 


9 


1 § !"» 




» 248 


" 4673 




Tombs. 




6th. 


Memphite, 


6 


"J= *f 




'■ 203 


" 4425 




Copper Mines, 




7th. 


Memphite, 


5 


1 15 




75 


" 4222 




Quarries, 


Namesmnknown 


8th. 


Memphite, 


5 


3 8 o 




" 100 


" 4147 


► Years 443 


Relics and Papyri. 


Idem 


9th. 


Heliopolite, 


4 


o E * 

■5 2 a 




» 100 


" 4047 


Great 


Idem 


10th. 


Heliopolite, 


19 






" 185 


" 3947 




Number of 


Idem 


11th. 


Theban, 


17 


J5JJ3 




» 59 


" 3762 




Unplaced kings. 


Idem 


12th. 


Theban, 


7 


■g ■>> 9 




» 245 


" 3703 




» 


Uncertain 


13th. 


Theban, 


60 


— g.a 




» 453 


" 3417 




)> 


Idem 


14th. 


Xoite, 


76 


laJS 




» 484 


" 3004 




>> 


Idem 


15th. 


Theban, 


— 


Hg.2 
J B d 




» 250 


" 2520 




" [lis. 


Idem 


16th. 


Theban, 


5 




5 


» 190 


'• 2272 




Obelisk of Heliopo- 


Tablet of Abydoa 


17th. 


^ Theban, 


J i 




6 


" 260 


" 2082 




Karnac. 


Abraham's visit 




( Hykshos, 












Temples, Tombs, 


HebrewT., B.C. 


18th. 


Theban, 


17 




18 


" 348 


" 1822 




Palaces, Tablets, 


[1920 

Moses B.C. 1491 


19th. 


Theban, 


6 




6 


» 194 


" 1473 




Papyri, Relics, 


20th. 


Theban, 


12 




9 


" 178 


" 1279 




&c. &c. &c. 




21st. 


Tanite, 


7 




? 


» 130 


" 1101 




all over 




22nd. 


Bubastite, 


9 




9 


» 120 


" 971 




Egypt and 


Rehoboam 


23rd. 


Tanite, 


4 




? 


" 89 


" 851 




Nubia. 


B. C. 971 


24th. 


Saitic, 


1 




? 


44 


" 762 






25th. 


Ethiopian, 


3 




3 


44 


718 








26th. 


Saitic, 


9 




6 


" 150 


674 








27th. 


Persian, 


8 ' 




4 


" 120 


524 








28th. 


Saitic, 


1 




1 


" 6 


404 






29th 


Mendesian, 


5 




4 


21 


398 








30 th. 


Sebennitic, 


3 




1 


38 


377 








31st. 


Persian, 


3 




? 


8 


339 








31 dynasties 




378 kings. 




• 


End, B.C. 331 






i 



B. C. 332. 


Luqsor. 


B. C. 304. 


PhihE. 


B.C. 30. 


Ombos, Edfoo. 



Conquest of Egypt by Alexander, 
Accession of Ptolemy Soter, 
Fall of the Lagidi, 

The upper table is a reduction of the " Old Egyptian Chronicle," 
preserved to us by Syncellus. This appears to be a succinct compi- 
lation, made in Egypt about the reign of Nashtenebf, of the 30th 
dynasty, say B. C. 359. I have already explained, that the " reign 
of the gods" refers possibly to our antediluvian period, when those 
heresies, termed by the fathers of the church, barbarismus, seem to 
have been first introduced. This heterodoxy they explained, as 
evinced by the fact, " that then men had no rulers ;" and that their im- 
piety and insubordination, brought down upon them the vengeance of 
the Most High, and the obliteration of all mankind save Noah's fam- 
ily. It is conjectured, that the first two reigns refer to those events 
anteceding the creation of man, which enter into the category of 
geological periods, of which it seems the Hierophants had some 
knowledge ; in confirmation of which, the names of the gods them- 
selves lend some feeble glimmer; for Cronus is "time immeasura- 
ble;" and Vulcan, who is our Pthah, typifies " the creative power" 
of the Almighty. When Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, discoursed 
with the Egyptian sages about those events which had happened to 
the Pelasgic Greeks, such as the traditions concerning the first Pho- 
roneus, and Niobe, and the deluge of Deucalion and Pyrrha, one of 
the most venerable of the sacerdotal ancients exclaimed, " O Solon, 
Solon ! you Greeks are always children; nor is there such a thing as 
an aged Grecian among you. All your souls are juvenile ; neither 
containing any ancient opinion derived from remote tradition, nor 
any discipline hoary from its existence in former periods of time. 
You mention one Deluge only ; whereas many happened !" The 



Roman Dominion in Egypt, B. C. 30. 

Last monumental hieroglyphical date, A. D. 215. 



Dendera. 
Esne. 



remaining 12 divinities relate, probably, to the line from Adam to 
Noah. 

The " reign of the demigods" 'is probably the period from Noah 
to the accession of Menes ; including the primitive colonization of 
Egypt, and the theocraticalgovernment, termed by the fathers, Scythis r 
mus, in reference to the apostacy of man, the confusion of Babel, &c 

The " reign of Men" begins with Menes, and the Pharaonic mo- 
narchy — termed also by the fathers, hellenismus, on account of 
the spread of idolatrous paganism, in which Terah, the father of 
Abraham, seems to have participated with the rest. Yet, if excep. 
tions to such idolatry existed in those primeval days, they will be 
found in " the order of Melchisedek," and among the initiated in 
Egyptian mysteries. 

Then follows Manetho's list. Those ciphers preceding the acces- 
sion of the 16th dynasty are doubtful, and the chronology is reduci- 
ble upon the arrangement of Syncellus into 443 years. The monu- 
mental parallels are positive in point of relative position, without 
requiring anything like Manetho's intervening internals of time be- 
tween the pyramids and the obelisk of Heliopolis. I have added a 
list of the hieroglyphical names already identified, which in 1841 
was deemed to be correct. 

Taking the era of the Deluge, according to the Septuagint (after 
the rejection of the 2nd Cainan) at B. C, 3154, we obtain some cu- 
rious coincidences to strengthen our belief in the correctness of the 
record; vhile, at the same time, they indicate the possible epoch of 
Menes. 



50 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



In the first place, by the Old Chronicle : 
From the birth of Christ, to the 2nd king of 



30th dynasty, there intervened 
From 30th dyn., to 15th 
From 15th to 1st — or the accession of Menes 



Years 359 
1881 



443 



From 1st dyn., back to commencement of the 
demigods (or possibly only to Mizraim's 
arrival) 



Postdiluvian interval 



Years 



2683 



217 

2900 
254 



Septuagint era of Flood, B. C. 3154 

This would give us 254 years between Noah and Mizraim's arri- 
val in Egypt — not an unreasonable interval. Then 217 more from 
Mizraim, during the theocratic period to Menes, who would thus have 
ascended the throne about B. C, 268S or 471 years after the Deluge. 

In the second place, by Manetho : 

Years. 
From the birth of Christ, to Alexander's conquest, 332 

From the 31st dynasty back to the 16th dyn., Years 2272 
Less the interval from Alexander to our Saviour, 332 

Gives us for interval, between Alexander and 

the 16th dyn., 1940 

From 16th dynasty back to 1st, 443 

Accession of Menes, B. C, 2715 

Interval between Menes and the Flood, 439 

Deluge, B. C, 3154 

We thus obtain the accession of Menes, by Ma- 
netho, at B. C, 2715 
By the Old Chronicle at 2683 

Difference only— years 32 

between the two records, after Manetho has been reduced on the 
system of Syncellus ; which, in subjects so remote, is of no import- 
ance ; and, in either case, leaves us an interval of about 400 years 
between Menes and the Flood. Of course, this view is purely hy- 
pothetical ; but it will serve to show, that there is nothing appalling 
in the chronological extension here contended for. This will satisfy 
the reader, that Egyptian hierology can be reconciled, in chrono- 
logical matters, with an orthodox biblical record, no less than, as I 
have shown, with other scriptural subjects. 

But there are other coincidences, equally confirmatory. Syncel- 
lus has recorded, that, in the Old Chronicle, this number of years, 
36,5:25, divided by 1461, gives exactly 25 sothic periods ; this period 
being composed of 1461 vague or civil years of 365 days. The 
singularity of this coincidence may, at first sight, appear to invali- 
date the record ; but on examination we may derive from it some 
precious chronological indications — to explain which, I must digress. 

There is no point ascertained with more precision, than the almost 
inconceivable remoteness of astronomical calculations and observa- 
tions among the earliest Egyptians, who appear to have perfected 
iheir calendar, for all practical purposes, at a period so distant, that 
even the Deluge epoch of the Septuagint appears irreconcilable with 
jue deductions thereon consequent. Indeed Champollion declares, 
what tha great mafhenr/.tician Biot confirms, that the astronomical 
dates, procured from the tombs of the kings at Thebes, would carry 
back the use of a national calendar in Egypt to the year 3285 B. C, 
Wfl>,h is 39 years beyond the Septuagint flood; even without the de- 
it'i'.tion of the interpolated Cainan ! I do not pretend to be compe- 
tent or- this point to form any opinion ; and the fact is merely ad- 
duced, in proof of the priority of astronomical knowledge among 
the children of Ham ; who, as I said before, must have brought into 
Egypt all the learning of antediluvian generations as an inherit- 
ance from Noah. 

It would seem, that the primitive division of the year, in Egypt, 
was into 12 lunar months — i. e., that the time occupied by the 
moon's revolution round the earth, gave origin to the month of 28 
Jays. 

The first change in the Egyptian year, was the substitution of 
Solar for Lunar months ; and then the year consisted of 12 months 
of 30 days each, or 360 days ; but, it being very soon perceived that 
the seasons were disturbed, and that they no longer corresponded 
to the same month ; five additional days were added to the end of 
the last Egyptian month, Mesore, to remedy the defect in the cal- 
endar, and to insure the return of the seasons at fixed periods. To 
those accustomed to ourpresant calendar, and to the division of the 
seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, it maybe worth ob- 
serving, that in Egypt, from the most ancient days to the present 
hour, the agriculturalist recognizes c-nly three seasons in the year. 
The Arab of the present day, who, in his chronological division of 
time, adopts the Mahommedan system of Lunar months in all his 
other pursuits ; follows for a/'ricultuMl purposes, the Coptic months, 



which are simply the ancient Egyptian ; while both Copts and Arabs 
call these months by their ancient names to this day. Each third' 
part of their year consists of 4 months, and is regulated in perfect 
accordance with the seasons in Egypt, and the periodical overflow ot 
the Nile. Thus, the first season in Egypt begins about a month 
before the end of our autumn. It is called by the Arabs " es-Shitteh," 
or winter. It is the season of sowing and vegetation — and anciently 
was termed the season of the " water plants." It lasts 4 months, 
beginning about November, and ending with the close of February : 
duration ISO days. The second season begins about the end of 
our winter : the Arabs call it " es-Seyf," or summer. It is the sea- 
son of harvest and reaping, and was anciently styled the " season of 
ploughing," for then, as at present, they prepared their lands for the 
summer crops: it lasts 4 months, or 120 days. The third season com- 
mences about July, and is called by the Arabs "el-Hareef," or autumn, 
or more usually " Neel," as the period of the inundation of the Nile. 
It is the time, when the river overflows its banks, and saturates all 
the alluvial with its fertilizing moisture, either by inundation or by 
filtration. Anciently, it bore the appropriate name of " the season of 
the waters." Its duration is 120 days. 

I would remark, that this adaptation of the three Egyptian seasons 
to our months will be found most correct, as leaving the Delta, you 
approach the Thebaid ; because on the line of the Mediterranean, at 
Alexandria for instance, the seasons, like almost everything else, are 
more European in their appearance ; nor is it fair to judge of Middle 
or Upper Egypt by the sea-coast. 

The intercalation of the 5 complementary days, at the end of the 
year of 12 solar months, brought the calendar to practical utility. It 
was then termed the vague or civil year, consisting of 365 days ; and 
the Pharaohs were obliged to swear, that they would preserve it in 
tact from any intercalation. This was the only year known to Hero 
dotus, to Plato and to Eudoxus ! 

This vague, or civil year of 365 days, was soon discovered to be 
actually shorter than the duration of the true solar year, by about a 
quarter of a day, say six hours — for each day of the civil year retro- 
graded from the true solar revolution about one day in every four 
years ; about one month in every 120 years ; and about one year of 
365 days in 1460 years. By preserving, however, in ordinary uses, 
the civil year of 365 days ; there were many advantages accruing to 
the religious system of the ancient Egyptians. The name of each 
month bore the name of one of twelve divinities, and was under its 
especial protection ; while each day was under the blessing of a 
deity, as by the Roman Catholics, it is now under the protection of a 
saint. There is but little " new beneath the sun ;" and wherever we 
turn, we find that we are only perpetuating the notions and systems 
of our forefathers, whom we stigmatize as Pagans, while we adopt 
many of their customs. Thus, the Mahommedans, at present in 
Egypt, who go piously to pray in the mosque, on a day, supposed by 
them, to be the birth-day of a Muslim saint, whose tomb lies in the 
sanctuary ; or who assemble at the periodical festivals and fairs of a 
" Seyd-el-Bedawee," and a " Seyd Braheem-ed-Deso6qee," are little 
aware, that they are only doing that which was done on the same 
spots, at the same seasons, 3000 years before the Muslim saint, or 
even Mohammed himself existed ! yet, nevertheless it is a fact, and 
the Mahommedan clergy are prudent enough to regulate the annual 
return of some of these festivals — not by the Mahommedan, but by 
the Coptic calendar — not by the lunar, but by the solar months. 

Bysadhering, therefore, to the civil year of 365 da3's, the priests 
were enabled, in consequence of its annual recession, to carry the 
periodical festivals through all the different seasons of the year, within 
a known period ; that is, the same festivals would sometimes occur 
in summer, sometimes in winter, in regular undeviating succession. 

The same custom has been adopted by the Mahommedans, for 
their fast of the Ramadan ; which, within my recollection, has passed 
from midsummer, through spring and winter, and is now in autumn 

The Egyptian astronomers, while they thought it expedient to keep 
the practical and popular calendar to the civil year of 365 days ; 
were, however, perfectly aware of the necessity of a further interca- 
lation, to equalize the annual rotation. They therefore created a 
period, well known to astronomers and chronologists, as the Sothic 
period, from Sirius, the dog-star, termed Sothis by the Egyptians. 
This period was styled by the Greeks, the Cynic Cycle, from Cynos, 
a dog. When, therefore, we use the terms Sothic period, or Cynic 
Cycle, we mean one and the same thing — and when we say the 
Sothic year, the Sidereal year, the Cynic year, the Canjcular year, 
we refer to the year whose commencement was regulated by the pe- 
riodical and heliacal rising of the dog-star, or Sirius, called Sothis — 
the star of Isis, and Isis-Thoth ; or perhaps Thoth-Isis, (?) which, 
by transmutation into Greek, has become Sothis. This year con- 
sisted of 365| days, whereas the;civil year remained 365. 

It is certain, that the first morning apparition of the dog-star, be- 
fore sunrise, was religiously associated in Egypt, with the 1st day of 
the month of Thoih, called by the Arabs and Copts, " Toot " And 
thus, the 1st day of Thoth was the first day of the first month of each 
year. But there was another and a local cause, that connected the 
heliacal rising of the dog-star with the rising of the " sacred river ;" 
the grandest natural phenomenon in the valley of the Nile ; and one, 
as intimately hallowed by the vast utility of its benefits, as mythically 
interwoven with the religious doctrines of the Egyptians, and sacred 
to the memories of Osiris and Isis. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



51 



In Egypt, the dog-star — Sirius or Sothis — for about 3000 years 
B. C, and for some centuries after, rose on the same fixed day (mean 
parallel,) a little before the sun (heliacal rising ;) and this day was once 
the 20th day of July, Julian calendar. This star in the course of each 
year ceased to be visible on the horizon in Egypt for about a month 
and a half, because it rose and set during the day-time : soon after, 
it began to be perceived in the eastern sky, a little before sunrise ; 
and on the following days it showed itself more and more above the 
horizon, before the end of night. The first appearance of the star 
of Isis occurred some days after the summer solstice, and corre- 
sponded exactly to the first rising of the waters of the Nile. It was, 
therefore, all important to observe its movements ; and these obser- 
vations soon proved, that the rise of the dog-star, which occurred on 
the first day of the month of Thoth on one year, was not visible four 
years subsequently till the second day of the same month ; and four 
years later, not till the third, and so on ; till, after 120 years, this same 
rising of the dog-star would not be visible till the first of the second 
month of the year, or Paopi. 

The cause of this change was immediately explained, so soon as 
the priests remarked, that the civil year contained only 365 days ; 
whereas, the heliacal rising of the dog-star took place after an in- 
terval of 365 days and a quarter. The priests, therefore, created an 
astronomical or fixed year, by the addition of one quarter of a day, 
or six hours, to the original civil year ; which fixed year, being regu- 
lated by the dog-star, was termed the sothic year of 365 J days, which 
modern astronomers consider may have been the true length of the 
year in that latitude. • 

It was thus ascertained that, as the vague or civil year of 365 days 
was a moveable year, and as the sothic year of 365i days was a fixed 
year; that, if at any time these two years began on the same day, 
1461 civil years, or 1460 sothic years must transpire before the same 
circumstance could occur again ; thus, 

365 X4 gave the civil year every 1460 sothic years 
365^X4 " sothic " " 1461 civil " 
being a difference of one entire year between the sum of years de- 
pendent on the solar months with five days' intercalation, and the 
sum of years dependent on the annual heliacal rising of the dog-star, 
in 1460 sothic years. The heliacal rising of Sirius being, then, the 
initial point of the true year, the priests designated as the sothic 
period the series of 1460 fixed years, and of 1461 vague years, by 
which these two should recommence on the same instant ; because 
1460 years of 365-J days, inclose exactly the same number of days 
that are contained in the 1461 years of 365 days ; there being 533,265 
days in each of these series. 

Such was the calendar of the ancient Egyptians. It is probable, 
that to the generality of readers this explanation is supererogatory, 
because it is so familiar. However, at the risk of tedium, I have 
inserted it ; and now proceed to draw some deductions from the facts 
laid down. 

The coincidence, on the same day, of the two initial days of these 
respective periods — that is, when the first day of the fixed year was 
the first day of the vague year — a coincidence which could only occur 
every 1461 vague years, was in Egyptian chronology a memorable 
epoch. We are told by Censorinus, who wrote in the third century 
after Christ, that the last time the coincidence occurred, was on the 
20th July, 139 years after Christ; by which we know, that it oc- 
curred 1322 B. C, and again in the year 2782 B. C. : whence the 
knowledge we possess of the learning of the Egyptian hierarchy, 
legitimately allows our inferring, that it was by them observed. 

The Greek astronomers of early times appear to have been quite 
unaware of the introduction, by the Egyptians, of one year in 1461 
vague years, or of six hours at the end of each year. We have the 
authority of Strabo, that the intercalation was unknown to Plato and 
to Eudoxus, although they are said to have studied at Heliopolis ; 
while Herodotus's ignorance on this matter is fully proved, by his 
speaking of the Egyptian year of 365 days having the effect of keep- 
ing the seasons in their proper places ; although, in another passage, 
he gives the most conclusive proof of the existence of the intercalary 
quarter of a day in his time. 

He says, the priests reckoned from Menes, 341 kings, or genera- 
tions ; whence Herodotus calculates an interval of 11,340 years : yet 
he adds, " During this time, they (the priests) said the sun had four 
times risen out of his customary places ; that, both where he now sets 
he had twice there risen ; and where he now rises, he had there 
twice set."* By explaining this passage in relation to the sothic 
period, modern astronomers see that, under an apparent fable, the 
priests mystically told him the truth, although he did not understand 
it. For, in the interval of at least 2250 years between Menes and 
Herodotus, embracing as it does much more than one sothic period, 
the sun rose twice and set twice (at least) in the same degree of the 
ecliptic. The allegory was beautiful. 

It follows therefore, that the later Greek astronomers, such as Hip- 
parchus and Eratosthenes (although they do not acknowledge the 
souices of their Learning,) derived most of their astronomical know- 
ledge from the calculations of ancient Egyptians. 

* I have borrowed this explanation of Herodotus, as well as some chronological data 
:n n previous chapter, from the "American Quarterly Review," for December, 1KT7; 
which is from the pen of Professor Renwick of Columbia College. 1 have not met else- 
where with so luminous an explanation of the subject. 



The well known fable of the Phcenix seems to be mystically con- 
nected with the astronomical revolution of the sothic period — 
although it would seem that the story of its rising from its ashes w-as 
unknown in the time of Herodotus, but was invented in after times, 
and was adopted by the early Christian fathers. There is great con, 
fusion in the intervals between each Phcenix ; some reducing them to 
340 years, others extending them to 1461 years. It seems, however, 
to have symbolized, in whole or in part, the Sothic Period, or great 
astronomical year of the Egyptians ; being found on Egyptian monu- 
ments, dating as far back as the commencement of the 18th Dyn., or 
B. C. 1800. In the Coptic Phcneh, meaning age or period, we trace 
the root of Phoenix, and its cadendrical utilities. 

According to Horus-Apollo, the Phcenix symbolized the soul of 
man — an expiring cycle of time — and also, the inundation of the 
Nile. 

We have the authority of Chreremon and Porphyry for the antiquity 
of the word almanack in Greek, long prior to the Saracens ; and for 
the statement that almanacs are mentioned in the Books of Hirmes. 
Some English and Arabic vocabulists assert, that almanac is an 
Arabic word !" I concede the article " al," or rather el, to be an 
Arabian prefix. But I should be edified to learn, to what Arabic 
root they trace the word manac. It is probably of ancient Coptic 
origin ; and if ever used by Arab historians (for it is unknown in 
the Darig,) it is a compound, like the word almagcst — the Arabic, 
el — the, and the Greek, megistos — greatest; used by Ptolemy in 
astronomy, and by the Grenada Moors in alchemy. 

Now, by the authority of Syncellus, In the table of the Old Chron- 
icle, the first dynasties embrace 443 years of the sothic period; 
whence it follows, that the first king of the 1st Dyn., Menes, ascended 
the throne about the year 2782 Julian B. C. ; and it may be inferred, 
that he was the first Pharaoh who pledged himself not to alter the 
calendar. 

The 36,525 years of time, which the Old Chronicle gives for the 
entire reign of gods, demigods, and Egyptians, divided by 1461, 
gives us exactly 25 sothic periods ; and instead of being taken by us 
literally, and therefore rejected by us as fabulous, must be regarded 
as a vast astronomical cycle, by which the Hierophants regulated 
their calendar; and their astronomical skill is nowhere more appa- 
rent than in their cycle of 25 years, for adjusting the lunar with tlie 
solar motions ; whereby they possessed a system more rigorously 
correct than the Julian method in similar reductions. 

The whole of this digression is merely to precede a few deductions, 
to enlighten us on the probable epoch of the accession of Menes ; a 
fundamental point in all subsequent Egyptian history ; and without 
deeming it absolutely necessary to continue in prefatory explanations, 
I present the several results. 

1st — By the astronomical reduction of Herodotus, according 
to Professor Renwick, we obtain the accession of Me- 
nes about B. C. 2890 
2nd — By Syncellus — Manetho agrees with general — (or 
Septuagint) chronology, if we cut off 656 years before 
the flood, and 534 afterwards — the true period of 
Egyptian history, according to him, would place the 
accession of Menes — Renwick's calculation, B. C. 2712 
3rd — By Rosellini's reduction of Syncellus, page 15, vol. 1st, 

Menes would fall about B. C. 2776 

4th — By Champollion Figeac, page 267, the epoch of Menes 

would be — Freret's calculation, B. C. 2782 

5th— By Doct. Hales' calculation, " 2412 

6th— By my reduction of the " Old Chronicle," " 2683 

7th— By my reduction of " Manetho,'" " 2715 

I have before stated, that we could not define with precision the 
epoch of Menes within 500 years — but all differences considered, 
between the extreme of 2890 B. C. for remoteness, and 2412 B. C. 
for proximity, which added to Rosellini's and Champollion's esti- 
mates of the accession of the 16th dynasty - B. C. 2272 
Addition, 478 

Would place Menes about the year - 2750 B. C; 

which I am inclined to adopt, as within a hundred year's approxima- 
tion of the truth : thus affording abundance of interval, between the 
Flood and Menes on the one hand ; and possibly sufficient for the 
erection of the works now existing at Memphis — the pyramids — be. 
tween Menes and the accession of the 16th Dyn., on the other. 

Perfectly aware of the extreme uncertainty of these calculations, 
I would observe, as an excuse for the digression, that the epoch of 
Menes is all-important in history — that I have endeavored to rccon 
cile it with the Septuagint as nearly as possible within reason and 
probability — and that I lean rather in favor of an extension of the 
interval between Menes and our Saviour; for which I could easily 
bring forward a mass of arguments and explanations, founded on 
facts; among which are the vast number of "unplaced kings" we 
possess, who mu.-t have lived between Menes and the 16th Dyn. I 
repeat, however, to the best of my present belief, the epoch of Menes 
taken at B. C. 2750, will reconcile monumental evidences with tho 
Scriptural chronology of the Septuagint version. 

It i*, however, necessary for me to explain, why I have pn 'limed 
to difler in chronology with so learned a hierologist as Sir J. G 



52 



ANCIENT EGYPT, 



Wilkinson ; because, as his works are most familiar to my readers, 
Borne might be struck with the discrepancy. 

In his " Topography of Thebes" (London, 1835, page 506,) after 
preferring the list of Eratosthenes to that of Manetho, for his earlier 
series of kings, Sir J. G. W. says : 

" I am aware, the era of Mcnes might be carried back to a much 
more remote period than the date I have assigned it ; but as we have 
as yet no authority further than the uncertain accounts of Manetho's 
copyist, to enable us to fix the time and the number of reigns inter- 
vening between his accession and that of Apappus, I have not placed 
him earlier, for fear of interfering with the date of the deluge of 
Noah, which is 2348 B. C." 

The lis* of Eratosthenes bedug now of less authority than Mane- 
tho, and it being impossible >o cramp and crowd Egyptian annals 
into Archbishop Usher's limit of 2348 years, I would remark, that 
at the time of the construction of Sir J. G. W.'s table, I was at 
Cairo in gratifying relations with him, and therefore know that this 
table dates about 1832-33. The works from which I derive the 
basis of my discourse, have mostly been published in France and in 
Italy since 1832 : and Sir J. G. W.'s table is now behind the age, and 
the progress since made in Egyptian developments ; while Col. Vyse's 
researches at the pyramids have made the 4th Dyn. of Manetho loom 
tike a meteor in the night of time. 

The chronology of Wilkinson is inconsistent with itself. He takes 
the Deluge according to Usher, at - - - - B. C. 2348 
and he is compelled to place Menes at least - - - " 2201 

as the lowest limit — leaving between the Flood and Me- 

nes an interval of years 147 

at which time it is extremely doubtful, if the Caucasian children of 
Noah, had around them a sufficiency of population to impel them to 
quit Asia, and to colonize Egypt. But, on referring to page 41, 1st 
Vol. of his invaluable later work, on the " Manners and Customs of 
the ancient Egyptians," London, 1837, (uncontradicted in his second 
series of 1841 ) it will be seen that the learned author, on the author- 
ity of Josephus, (who says " Menes lived upward of 1300 years be- 
fore Solomon," which last king ascended the throne of Israel, B. C. 
1015 ;) extends the date of Menes from 2201 B. C. of his former 
table to 2320 B. C, without any intimation that he, Sir J. G. W., re- 
cognizes a correspondent precession of the era of the Flood, which he 
still leaves at B. C. 2348. 

If, as before stated, 147 years are totally insufficient, as an interval 
between Noah and Menes, how much more so must be twenty-eight 
years ? These 28 years are altogether absurd, for Egyptian local 
events alone between the Flood and Menes ; still more so, when we 
reflect on the geographical distance from Mount Ararat to Lower 
Egypt, and on the necessary prior multiplication of the human race 
on the plains of Shinar. 

That one so erudite and critical as Sir J. G. Wilkinson, should 
have committed any inadvertency in such arrangement, is an impos- 
sibility. On the contrary, it displays a design ; which may perhaps 
be explained, by supposing, that amid the conflictions of 300 systems 
of chronology, on the epoch of the Deluge, the learned author may 
have deemed one view about as well founded as any other ; while, 
by placing so obvious an anachronism on the " head and front" of 
his tables, he desired to show the absurdity of attempting to recon- 
cile Egyptian monumental annals with Archbishop Usher's Deluge ; 
and I feel extremely obliged for the argument I am thus enabled to 
draw, in favor of my more extended hypothesis. 

Finally, whether we confine Egyptian history to the contracted 
limits of Usher's chronology, and the Hebrew verity ; or take "in ex- 
tenso" the widest range legitimately admissible on the authority of 
the Septuagint version, it will be found, that the time-honored chron- 
icles of Egypt carry us back to the remotest era of early periods ; 
and even then display to us the wonderful and almost inconceivable 
evidences, of a government organized under the rule of one monarch ; 
of a mighty and numerous people skilled in the arts of war and 
peace ; in multifarious abstract and practical sciences ; with well 
framed laws, and the social habits of highly civilized life, wherein 
the female sex was free, educated and honored ; of a priesthood 
possessing a religion, in which the Unity of the Godhead and his 
attributes in trinities or triads, with a belief in the immortality of 
the soul, a certainty of ultimate judgment, and a hope of a resurrec- 
tion, are discoverable ; concealed though they be by the mysticisms 
of a wise but despotic hierarchy, and loaded by the vulgar castes and 
the uninitiated, with the impurities of the grossest superstition. 

It will then be seen, that, apart from those changes of style and 
fashion, which the conservative principles of the priesthood could 
not altogether prevent in the lapse of so many ages, the Caucasian 
inhabitants of the Nilotic valley were in possession of hieroglyphical 
writing, at the farthest point of time we can descry. And we shall 
find the Egyptian children of Ham, the Asiatic, as great and as 
learned, if not much more virtuous in those primeval days, as they 
were at the invasion of the Persians, in the year 525 B. C, when 
their monarchy had existed from 1500 to 2000 years. 

Of what nation, obliterated from the face of the earth at the pres- 
ent hour, or providentially surviving to defend its pretensions to prior 
existence, can the contemporary annals boast a similar antiquity ? 
To whom, but to the Egyptians, are we indebted for the origin of 
many of oui most important arts, and sciences, and institutions? 



And why should prejudices and preconceived notions, gathered in 
our infancy we can scarcely tell how, and maintained by narrow- 
mindedness and ignorance, still prevent our recognizing in the pure- 
blooded Caucasian inhabitants of early Egypt, the sources of many 
of those benefits, that we, who recognize in Noah a common 
ancestor, at present enjoy ? 

There remains still one final point, upon which it is necessary for 
me to dwell, before commencing the monarchical history of Egypt ; 
and this refers to the long-prevailing, but erroneous opinion, that 
the kings or dynasties of Egypt were contemporaneous ; that is, that 
one king may have ruled over the Upper, while another may have 
'reigned over the Lower country at the same moment ; than which, 
(however it may be deemed expedient thereby to reconcile the anti 
quity of Egypt with the short chronology) there is no more untenable 
doctrine, or one more unanimously rejected by the Champollions, by 
Rosellini, by Wilkinson, and by all who, as hieroglyphists, have 
examined the monuments and the country itself. The arguments 
that would remove all doubts, would probably be too long to com- 
mand attention ; but I crave indulgence while I define and establish 
my own position, lest I should be found hereafter behind the age. 

It is herein, therefore, maintained, that, with very few and con- 
jectural exceptions, (on which the arguments for, or against, are in 
each instance either equally balanced, or destructive of the contem- 
porary application,) the result of hieroglyphical researches during the 
whole period of history from Menes downward, overthrows such 
an hypothesis, as contempor0neousness. The only contemporary 
dynasty, by the best authorities recognized, is the rule of the Hyk- 
shos, or Scythian Shepherd-kings in Lower Egypt, during a period, 
probably of 260 years; while the 17th Theban dynasty, of native 
Egyptian Pharaohs, reigned over Upper Egypt, till these last suc- 
ceeded in expelling the alien race. 

To this solitary instance of two contemporary dynasties, ruling in 
different part3 of Egypt at the same moment, may be added that 
period of anarchy, which preceded Psamettichus of the 26th Saitic 
Dyn. ; wherein Herodotus places the rule of the Dodecarchia, or rule 
of 12 kings ; but this last case is extremely doubtful, and has derived 
no confirmation from the hieroglyphics. As we proceed, we shall 
touch in their places on points that confirm the above view, while 
we can confidently assert, that there were no contemporary Egyptian 
Pharaohs. 

The only correct view of the classification, by Manetho, of dynas- 
ties named Thinite, Tanite, Memphite, Elephantinite, Heliopolite, 
Diospolite, Xoite, Bubastite, Saitic, Mendesian, and Sebennite, is to 
consider them not territorial, but family distinctions ; not separate 
governments, but the localities, cities, or provinces, whence the 
reigning Pharaoh, or his ancestors were derived by birth, or were in 
name associated through some other unknown bond of connection. 

The monuments, and sacred and profane history, will be found to 
confirm and justify this straight-forward view of an often " vexata 
quaestio." 

We can afford to smile at the creation of an independent state and 
contemporaneous monarchy, on a miserable little rocky island, not 
more than twice the size of the New York Battery, and not so large 
as the Common at Boston, and allow Elephantine and its independ- 
ent and contemporary sovereignty to sleep with the fabled and fabu- 
lous Memnon — the vocal Statue — the negro features of the Sphinx 
— Cleopatra's Needle — Pompey's Pillar — the antiquity of the Zodiacs 
of Dendera and Esne — the African or Ethiopian origin of the ancient 
Egyptians, and other odd fancies of an expiring age. 



CHAPTER SIXTH. 



In the previous portion of this discourse, I gave the calculations 
and arguments, whereby the accession to the throne of Menes, was 
considered by me, to have taken place within a century of the year 
2750., B. C. 

To give an idea of the process adopted by the hieroglyphical 
school in re-constructing Egyptian history, no less than to establish 
the fact that the ancient Egyptians were Caucasian in race, and Asia- 
tic in origin, I will dwell rather longer on this monarch, his deeds and 
times, than at first sight may appear necessary, or has been generally 
thought requisite by my predecessors of the Champollion school. 

The fragments of Manetho give, as the 1st king of the 1st dynasty 
" Menes, the Thinite ; who earned the arms of Egypt into foreign 
countries, and rendered his name illustrious. He died of a wound 
received from a hippopotamus, about the 62nd year of his reign." 
Besides the authority of Manetho, we possess the testimony of other 
ancient authors, Herodotus, Eratosthenes, Diodorus, Josephus, the old 
Egyptian Chronicle of Castor, the Canon of Syncellus, all agreeing 
that Menes was the first of the kings of Egypt ; which is corrobo- 
rated by our finding his royal oval, in hieroglyphics, as the earliest an- 
cestor of Ramses 3rd— Sesostris — in the procession sculpturedon the 
walls of the Theban Palace, now known as the " Ramsessium," but 
formerly, and erroneously called, the Memnonium. 

Sec tablet, in my lecture room- This Succession was cut in the 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



53 



reign of Ramses — Sesosrris, between the years 1565, B. C, and 1490, 
B C: and as Menes 




M 

N 



or '■' Menei," is here the first ancestor of Sesostris 



we find the sculptures at once confirming history. 

Eratosthenes says, his name "Menes," means "Dio- 

nios," rendered " Jovialis," of or belonging to Jove. 

IE Jove is the Egyptian God, " Amun,"and in Cop- 

Utic, •' Menei" is an abreviation of " Amun-ei," sig. 
J^ £ f nifying, " who walks with Amun." Josephus tells 

us, that Menes ruled " more than 1300 years before Solomon," who 
was born in 1032, B. C, 

To the above-mentioned genealogical procession may be added the 
celebrated chronological canon of the dynasties of Egypt, written on 
papyrus, in the hieratic character, composed in the 15th century, B. 
C and now existing in the Museum of Turin. This venerable relic 
in in such a deplorable state of dilapidation, that but little can bemade 
out, beyond a few simple facts, that excite at once curiosity and un. 
availing regrets. But the first page opens with these words : " The 
king, Menei, exercised royal attributions years—" 

By some ancient writers, Menes is stated to have been a Theban ; 
by others it is said that he was born at the city of This, near Aby. 
dos, whence his dynasty is termed Thinite. 

We are told he founded Thebes, which is likewise attributed to a 
later king, Busiris ; but the concurrent testimony of Herodotus and 
Josephus ascribes to the first king, Menes, the glory of founding 
Memphis ; which achievement i3 by Diodorus likewise attributed to 
another very early monarch, (though subsequent to Menes) Ucho. 
reus. There seems to be no reason why Menes should not have 
founded, or perhaps only extended, (?) either or both of these cities ; 
but it is particularly to be remarked, 

1st. That Manetho speaks of Athothis, son of Menes, building a 
palace at Memphis, whence we may legitimately infer, that the city 
was already in existence, and therefore was probably founded by his 
father : 

2nd. That, as Josephus had access to copies of Manetho's original 
history, of which we possess only fragments, and seeing that by his 
numerous quotations therefrom in his defence of the Jews against 
Apion, Josephus shows that he, and the world in his day, placed 
implicit confidence in the then indisputable authority of the learned 
Priest of Sebennitus ; we may infer, that when Josephus assigns to 
Menes the foundation of Memphis, upward " of 1300 years before 
Solomon," and " many years prior to Abraham," the Hebrew chron 
icier was not at variance with Manetho's record of Egypto-anti- 
quarian lore ; while the view of relative chronology taken by Jose- 
phus could not have been contrary to the Jewish historical archives, 
such as they were in his time, previously to the corruption of the 
Hebrew Biblical text. 

Herodotus, likewise, in attributing to Menes the building of Mem- 
phis, adds, also, that Menes founded therein a " Temple to Vulcan." 
Now the Vulcan, or Hephrestus of the Greek mythology, who was 
degraded by them into a limping blacksmith, is only a Greek mis- 
conception and perversion of that beautiful Egyptian mythical idea, 
whereby Vulcan or " Pthah" of the Egyptians, was but a form of or 
emanation from the Godhead, symbolizing the " creative power" of 
the Almighty. We know that Memphis was the city of "Pthah," who, 
from time immemoria 1 was here peculiarly worshipped. Memphis 
is Biblically " Noph." A r c"" ,! " "Ullage on its site is termed Memf, 
or Menoph, thus confirming history, sacred and profane. In hiero- 
glyphics Memphis is known by several titles. 

1 '< The Abode of Good, land 
of the Pyramid." 



Menofke. 



A/VNAA (+) 




Pthah-ei. 




'The habitation of Pthah. 



One form of the god Pthah was termed Pthah-Sokar-Osiris, and 
was peculiarly venerated at Memphis. This deity was often called 
only Sokaris, or rather " Sokar," whence the present name 'of the 
village, which lies on the Necropolis of Memphis, has been inge- 
niously traced, being now called " Zaccara." 

Pthah, or Vulcan, we know was worshipped in a magnificent tem- 
ple at Memphis, until Christianity destroyed the doctrine, and Ma- 
bommedanism obliterated the edifice, save a few scattered blocks 
that still mark its site amid the date groves of Mctraheni. The 
frequent hieroglyphical references to this temple, existing in the time 
of Herodotus, though not in its ancient splendor, (as it had then been 
plundered by Cambyses,) sheds a confirmatory glimmer of light on 
the accuracy of the Greek historian in this instance ; because a 
hieroglyphical tablet in the quarries of" Toora," opposite Memphis, 
of the time of Amosis-Thetmoses, vanquisher of the Hykshos, and 
last of the 17th Dynasty, B. C. 1822, records that, he, " Aahmes took 
good materials from these quarries to repair ? restore ? or build ? the 
temple of Pthah, at Memphis" — a proof that the temple of Pthah 
.•xisted at Memphis, prior to B. C. 1822, or the reign of Amoeis. 



Whence, even if we had no other evidence to bring forward, we 
may already draw satisfactory inferences that Herodotus was correct 
in his account of early Memphis — that Memphis was a city when 
Athothis, or Menes his father, founded therein a- temple to Pthah— 
and that this temple of Pthah existed before the end of the 17th 
Dynasty, B. C. 1822. 

Again, Herodotus speaks of the "turning off of the Nile into a 
new channel by Menes," who raised a dike to prevent its overflow 
from flooding the city — a work corroborated by the topographical 
nature of the localities, and by the present aspect of the Nile, near 
the spot where the river was diked-off, about fourteen miles above 
the mounds of Metraheni, the site of Memphis : and a precaution 
still retained by the Fellahs of that district, to preserve their villages 
from inundation, as well as to control the irrigating utilities of the 
" Sacred River." 

This diking-off of the Ni'e is a process, which (as there is every 
reason to suppose it was performed by Menes) is a strong argument 
to show, that, in his day, the children of Ham had already arrived, 
not only at abundant population, which rendered necessary the found- 
ation of a metropolis, and the economical preservation of the allu- 
vial soil above Memphis (the finest tract of land in all Egypt,) but, 
that they had also arrived at considerable knowledge in hydraulics, 
as well as other branches of science. Moreover, as these were works 
not likely to be attempted without necessity, or without long previous 
experience of the habits of the river, it must be allowed they imply 
a long prior residence in Lower Egypt. 

History thus enables us to carry back the foundation of Memphis 
to the accession of the first king Menes ; and it is in her Necropolis 
or burial-ground, we find those monuments, which, in size, as in an- 
tiquity, exceed all others in the world, viz., the pyramids of Ghee- 
zeh, Abooseer, Zaccara, and Dashoor, with some tombs, coeval with, 
if not antecedent to, the erection of the earliest! 
We are therefore enabled to establish, 

1st. Historically, and monumentally, that Menes or Menei, was the 
first king of Egypt. 

2nd. Historically and monumentally, that, being founded by Menes, 
Memphis is the oldest city. 

3rd. Geographically, that Memphis is in Lower Egypt ; and thus, 
that the children of Ham, coming from Asia and spreading over the 
Nilotic valley, considered Lower Egypt the most eligible point (as 
it unquestionably is) for a metropolis — for great works — and mado it 
the chief seat of primitive monarchial government. 

Upon the authority of Josephus, whose chronology is in accord- 
ance with the Septuagint, and not with the corrupted Hebrew ver- 
sion (independently of the absolute necessity for placing the acces- 
sion of Menes as far back as possible, to make room for the kings who 
reigned after him,) we establish the foundation of Memphis by Me ■ 
nes, and its existence as a Templed city ; protected by great artificial 
water-defences, at some period anterior to 1300 years before Solo- 
mon, or prior to 2320 years, B.C. ; and we can therefore with pro- 
priety contend, that the view herein taken of chronology, based on 
the Septuagint version of the Bible, is neither extravagant, nor merely 
hypothetical ; because the interval of 28 years between the founda- 
tion of Memphis by Menes, and the Deluge, according to Archbishop 
Usher's chronology, B. C. 2348, is wholly insufficient for the num- 
berless preparatory events that must have employed the human race, 
between the multiplication and progress of Noah's family down tho 
Euphrates, till they separated atShinor, and the foundation of Mem- 
phis, in Egypt, by a Caucasian colony. By allowing, on the chro- 
nology of the Septuagint, an interval of about 400 to 500 years before 
we seat Menes on the throne of Egypt — somewhere about the year 
2750, B. C. — we are not subjected to such absurd anachronisms and 
physical impossibilities. 

Menes, chief of the military caste, happily accomplished the revo- 
lution which substituted a civil government for the theocracy. He 
was the first invested with the title of Pharaoh (in Hebrew, Phrah) 
or king ; and, from this new order of things was created a royal he- 
reditary government. It would appear, that Menes was occupied 
with foreign wars, though upon what nation we have no information. 
It may be presumed, that these military movements were chiefly di- 
rected to the protection of the frontiers of Egypt from the incursions 
of adjacent nomadic and barbarous tribes, by which Egypt was, and 
is still surrounded in every direction. To the south, there were the 
Berber and Negro races; to the west, the Lybians, along the whole 
length of the river from Nubia to the sea ; to the east, lay the Eastern 
Desert, probably occupied, as at present, by mixed races ol Arabs 
and Berbers ; while the Isthmus of Suez required particular a ten- 
tion, as this line of frontier was exposed to constant incursions of 
Asiatic tribes, eager to obtain their share of the "flesh pots of Egypt." 
Of these defences we have abundant vestiges to this day, although 
we cannot say by what king, or at what time, they were erected. 

I have already spoken of Egypt, as a valley, between two high 
chains of hills — the Lybian and the Eastern ranges. The face? of 
these, especially along the eastern bank, are often quite perpendicu- 
lar ; so that they act as walls to keep the nomad from the cultivated 
around ; but, at various distances, these are intersected by deep ra- 
vines, along which journeys arc performed, and intercourse is main- 
tained botween the Nile and the Red Sea. Now, there is not one 
of these ravines, but at its mouth, nearest the river, there are re. 



54 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



mains of walls, that once blocked up the passage ; and, from the ru- 
ins in the vicinity of some, we may conjecture these were forts, 
gates and military stations. Wherever, as you ascend the river, you 
find the inclination of the hills, on the eastern side, such as would 
admit of communication between the cultivated soil and the desert, 
you will find traces thereon, more or less apparent, of a long brick 
wall, stretching from north to south, and terminating only where na- 
tural impediments render this wall unnecessary — taken up again a 
few miles beyond ; and so on, all the way to Nubia. This wall is 
termed by the Arabs, Gisr-el-Ag66s, or the "Old Man's Dike," in 
memory of its antiquity. 

The subject of the relations of the desert-tribes with Egypt, from 
the earliest times to the present day, is one that has much interested 
me, and might be extended to long and curious exposition, that would 
remove many erroneous impressions concerning the " B6dawees" in 
the deserts adjacent to the Nile. 

It cannot be supposed that, by the construction of this wall, the 
Egyptians intended to cut off all intercourse with the desert ; on the 
contrary, this intercourse was to both parties essential ; for the nomad 
would starve if he could not obtain grain from the farmer ; while the 
latter, with the manufacturer, requires the camel's hair, the long reeds 
for matting, and a number of productions, whose attainment requires 
the skill of the son of the desert, as much as grain that of the far- 
mer, or as useful manufactures that of the craftsman. 

The object of the walls was to bring the nomad under the control 
of a well-regulated police ; V> prevent him from pasturing his flocks, 
without paying for the permission of the proprietor of the soil ; or 
from stealing the grain and forage he was thus compelled to purchase ; 
with an infinitude of other wise and excellent regulations, conducive 
to social good order, and agricultural economy ; but by no means de- 
structive of friendly intercourse between the Ishmaelite and the 
peasant. Indeed, the Almighty's hand is nowhere more apparent 
in adapting man to the nature of the soil on which he is to reside, 
than in peopling the deserts around Egypt with a hardy race, as use- 
ful in their vocation as the citizen, the farmer and the sailor. Euro, 
pean civilization will work no material changes in the habits of the 
" Bedawee." 

But, though employed in wars, Menes distinguished his era by the 
arts of peace. He founded Memphis : it is said he built Thebes. 
He commenced, on a large scale, the diking and " canalization," so 
essential to the prosperity of Egypt. He founded the great temple 
of Pthah ; and introduced into social life those comforts and luxuries 
of civilization, which, notwithstanding the curse of Tnephachthus, 
conduce to the terrestrial happiness of man ; while by his protection 
of religion and the priesthood, he insured the education of the peo- 
ple, and the preservation of a religious system, that Christianity alone 
after a lapse of nearly 3000 years could overthrow. We cannot 
wonder, therefore, that the memory of so great a man should have 
been dear to his successors, or that the monuments should attest the 
veneration of a name handed down to us by all early writers. 

These chapters being confined to the exemplification of Egyptian 
history by the hieroglyphics, I refer to Manetho for the names of the 
kings of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd dynasties, who followed Menes on the 
Pharaonic throne ; because, as yet, it has been impossible to identify 
the names of any one of these in the hieroglyphics ; owing rather to 
uncouth changes, made through ignorance of transcribers, of the 
names left by Manetho, than to the absence of royal ovals, as I shall 
soon explain. 

We glean from Manetho, that during these three dynasties, pala- 
ces were built, pyramids were erected ; that Egypt was visited twice 
by the plague, whence the antiquity of this disease in Egypt may be 
inferred. In fact, it is an illusion to suppose that the same natural 
causes should not operate, in early times, to produce the same effects 
as at present : and it has been demonstrated by Clot Bey, that the 
plague is indigenoss, not only to Egypt, but to the East in general, 
along the northern coast of Asia and Africa ; that its causes are un- 
known, but that its developments are spontaneous ; that it is an error 
to suppose that mummification (begun in primeval epochs and con- 
tinued above 3000 years down to the days of St. Augustine,) was 
adopted as a preventive (!) because, during the periods of mummifi- 
cation, we have abundance of sacred and profane history to prove the 
occasional desolating effects of the Oriental pestilence ; and finally, as 
these two occurrences of the plague are antecedent to Abraham, the 
pestilence with which the Almighty visited the Egyptians in the time 
of Moses, was not the first instance of the plague in Egypt, as we are 
well assured it was not by many hundreds the iast. We also learn, 
that women were, in the second dynasty, permitted to hold the impe- 
rial government; an institution that continued intact till the extinction 
of the Ptolemies in the far-famed Cleopatra ; as is attested all through 
this long line of centuries by hieroglyphical evidence. 

The Lybians, at that day, were tributary to Egypt; and we are in- 
formed, that an eclipse of the moon was observed. Works on anat- 
omy and medicine were written by two kings of these dynasties. 
It may be inferred, that the use of the saw in cutting large stones, 
was discovered in this period — while all the arts and sciences of the 
ancients appear to have been in full development and use — but oth- 
erwise, these kings gained no celebrity ; whence we may infer, that 
Egypt was peaceful, happy, and prosperous, during the dominion of 
unambitious kings. 



A long, but undefinable interval, from Menes to tue end of the 3rd 
Memphite dynasty, brings us to the 4th, and (to us) the most im- 
portant of all ; because recent discoveries have enabled us to verify 
history by extraordinary monumental confirmations. 

We are all well acquainted with the wonders of the world — the 
eternal pyramids, whose existence astounds our credence — whose anti- 
quity has been a dream — whose epoch is a mystery. What monu- 
ments on earth have given rise to more fables, speculations, errors, 
illusions and misconceptions ? 

The subject of the pyramids is so vast, as not to-be condensible 
into this series of lectures ; but those who feel curious to know the pos- 
itive height, length, breadth, areas, cubic contents, &c. &c. of each 
of these lofty monuments, are referred to the great work of Col. H. 
Vyse, who expended during the years 1837-38, many thousands of 
pounds, in excavations and other labors in these edifices. It is my 
intention to construct a table, which, at one view, shall give all re- 
quisite details ; and then it will afford me pleasure to devote a special 
lecture to the pyramids ; but I am prevented, at present, from so 
doing, by the absence of the most important vol. of Col. Vyse's 
work — the 3rd, which has not yet reached this country ; and although 
I am generally acquainted with the substance of its contents, hav- 
ing seen many of the calculations in manuscript, and witnessed 
the labors of Mr. Perring, on the spot, in 1839, it would be contrary 
to the principles I have laid down, (of not hazarding statistical asser- 
tions, without being able to produce competent authority,) were I 
now to enter into details. 

It will be conceded, that a person who, like myself, has resided for 
years in constant sight of these Mausolea ; who has spent at different 
intervals, many months in exploring them, and their vicinities — who 
has ascended the great pyramid a score of times, and entered fre- 
quently into all the chambers, passages, &c., of the others ; has at 
least had an opportunity of gleaning some knowledge about them. 
Since therefore, with all these advantages, I postpone lecturing on the 
pyramids, till I possess the most important work ever published on 
the subject ; my readers will appreciate the difficulty of the appre 
hended task, when even I, who know all that has been done, fear to 
mislead others by premature expositions. On every subject touched 
in these chapters or lectures, the latest and best information will be 
produced ; and I would rather encounter the charge of ignorance on 
the pyramids, than that of abusing the confidence with which my 
communications are so indulgently listened to.* 

But, if I abstain from statistical details on this head, there are some 
generalities, proceeding from recent discoveries of hieroglyphical 
names &c, in the pyramids, that are invaluable to history ; and these 
I will now consider. 

It is sufficient to sweep one's eye along the map, suspended above 
me (a rough outline of which I present in this treatise) from Mem- 
phis to Meroe — a distance of 1500 miles — to perceive that there was 
a time (and that prolonged for unnumbered ages, during a remote 
period,) when pyramidal constructions were in vogue in the valley 
of the Nile ; and that in Egypt, the Memphite pyramids were the 
sepulchres of kings, does not any longer admit of a doubt. 

At Memphis, on a line extending about 25 miles from the most 
northern to the most southern pyramid, we have scattered in clus- 
ters, near the villages Aboo-rooa.sh, Gheezeh, AboOseer, Zaccaxa, and 
Dasho6r, about 25 pyramids, or pyramidal tombs of various con- 
struction, elevation and dimensions ; of which, some 18 may be 
termed large, and the rest small. They are all surrounded with count- 
less tombs, pits, excavations, passages, subterranean works and 
superficial structures — all exclusively dedicated to the dead — and, if 
millions of mummies have, in the last 1500 years, been removed and 
destroyed, there are millions still unmolested in that burial ground, 
to attest the vast population of ancient Memphis. Along this line 
is the Necropolis of a city, that ceased to exist after flourishing for 
3000 years. 

The pyramids of Gheezeh are of all sizes, from the largest to the 
smallest. The largest, that of Shoopho, is 

Feet— height. Sq. ft.— base. Cubic ft.— masonry. Tons— weight 

450-9 746 89,028,000 (5,848,000 

of good limestone ; cut into blocks, varying from 2 to 5 ft. square 
— from which estimate of limestone, however, must be deducted a 
large mass of granite blocks, used in lining the interior — while the 
amount of space occupied inside by chambers and passages, is only 
56,000 cubic feet, or T ^ of the whole mass. 

The smallest of the 9 at Gheezeh, is some 70 feet high, by a square 
base of about 102 feet. 

The remaining pyramids at the southward, those of Aboose6r, 
Zaccara and Dashobr, may be roughly estimated — the smallest about 
150, and the largest, about 350 feet high — two are of crude brick. 

There are pyramids at other places in Egypt. Two small ones at 
Lisht, about 20 miles beyond Dashoor ; and, about 20 miles further 
on, that of Meymoon — called " the false pyramid" — two of crude 
brick, and the vestiges of two more of stone, on the site of Lake 
Mceris in the Fayobm — and one at El-Qenan, above Esne. The 
latter are all small. 



* Even since this lecture was delivered at Boston, letters from Egypt inform me that 
the Prussian scientific mission, under the enthusiastic Leipsius, had, in December, made 
several valuable discoveries umon; these stupendous ruins ; all confirmatory of the 
views herein set forth. As soon as the details arrive, my oral lectures will contain all 
relative information. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



55 



In Ethiopia there are 

80 pyramids at " Meroe" — sandstone, 
42 do. at " Noori," " 

17 do. at Gebel-Birkal, " 

139 Pyramids above the Nile at lat. 18. 



[square base.] 
Maximum. Minimum. 

60 feet. 20 feet. 

100 " 20 " 

88 " 23 " 



The arch, both round and pointed, is coeval with the era of these 
last pyramids. 

For all that is hitherto known of the .pyramids of Meroe, I refer 
.o that valuable work, " Travels in Ethiopia, by Hoskins — London, 
1835." The facts of the author are indisputable ; but some of his 
deductions from those facts are often erroneous, especially those 
whereby he would prove the priority of Meroe. Without a special 
argument on the subject, it would be impossible to establish the fal- 
lacy of these deductions — but as the work of a gentleman, a hierolo. 
gist and a scholar, Mr. Hoskins's book is full of merit. I shall touch 
on some of the deductions I draw from the same data, anon. 

It would be vain to detail all the nonsense, that, from time immemorial, 
has been written on the pyramids of Memphis, which, by some, have 
been considered antediluvian ; although two of the most ancient being 
built of sunburnt brick, could not have endured the waves of- the 
Deluge for a single month. Others have ascribed their erection to 
giants or genii : they were said to inclose the impenetrable secrets 
of mystic demonomania, or to have been built for the mysteries of 
initiation. Again, they were supposed to have been erected for as- 
tronomical purposes. Then, it has been mathematically demonstrated, 
that they were built to " square the circle :" they are said to have 
stood over reservoirs to purify the muddy waters of the inundation ; 
to have served as the sepulchres of entire royal families, or for 
masses of population. In short, each speculation has exceeded its 
predecessor in absurdity, excepting when confined to the objects of 
astronomy and sepulture. With respect to their having served astro- 
nomical purposes, (though no harm can proceed from such an hypo- 
thesis,) it is refuted, 1st. By their extraordinary variety and number ; 
and 2nd, in Ethiopia, by their fronts facing all points of the compass, 
from N.E. to S.E. 3rd. In Egypt, from the measurements made in 
1839, by Mr. Perring, which demonstrate that the inclinations of the 
passages, as well as the relative position of each pyramid, vary so as 
to destroy all conformity to mathematical or astronomical purposes. 
These proofs against their astronomical utility, are independent of the 
voluminous evidences to be gleaned from history, and from a glance 
at the monuments themselves — their localities, and associations, 
which declare their sepulchral design. If, as Sir John Herschell 
observes, the inclined passage into the largest pyramid of Ghee'zeh, 
(which could never, at the time of its building, have been pointed at 
the Polar star, that is, at a Ursae Minoris) was made at an angle to 
correspond to a Draconis ; this pyramid must have been built about 
the year B. C. 2123, which alone would suffice to upset Usher's 
epoch of the Deluge, 2348 B. C. — because, 225 years would be too 
brief a period for the Caucasian children of Ham, to migrate from 
Asia into Egypt, there to acquire arts, sciences, and writing ; to 
erect first several pyramids, and then build the one which is now the 
largest. Their knowledge of astronomy must have been great in- 
deed, and the study of the heavens & primary object in life, to have 
caused them to conceive, and then to execute works (one of which 
consumed 6,848,000 tons of cut stone, brought 15 miles from the 
quarry,) the object of which would have been to point a passage 63 
feet long, to such an insignificant little star as a draconis. And, 
why did they build some 25 pyramids ? or erect at least two after 
the construction of the largest? 

The greatest astronomer of the age, Sir John Herschell, after in- 
specting the tables, (accurately determined for the first time by Col. 
Vyse, and his cooperalors in 1838) declares — Vyse, 2nd — 108: "No 
other astronomical relation can be drawn from the tables containing 
the angles and dimensions of the passages ; for although they all 
point within 5 degrees of the pole of the heavens, they differ too 
much and too irregularly to admit of any conclusions." 

" The exterior angles of the buildings are remarkably uniform ; 
but the angle 52° is not connected with any astronomical fact, and 
was probably adopted for architectural reasons." 

The opinion of their astronomical utility may be set down as now 
exploded in Europe ; while, in Egypt, the idea causes a senile of 
surprise, that any one should have taken the trouble seriously to in- 
quire into the subject. I am very far from questioning the antiquity 
of astronomy, or doubting the knowledge of that science in Egypt : 
for Diodorus, i., 28, expressly saye : " It is indeed supposed, that the 
Chaldeans of Babylon, being an Egyptian colony, arrived at their 
celebrity in astrology, in consequence of what they derived from the 
priests of Egypt." The Babylonish method of dividing the year 
was the same as the Egyptian, and can be traced positively back to 
B. C. 720 — but, although we know from Chron., ii., 31, 32, and Kings, 
ii., 20, 12, that, about the year 700 B. C, Babylonian astronomers 
visited Jerusalem ; yet, it is allowed by the best mathematicians, 
that the epoch of the Chaldean tables ascends to the year 2234, 
wnich is only 114 years after Usher's Deluge! 

If the Chaldeans derived astronomy from Egypt, the fact would 
prove that this science was known at the time of Menes, if not 
befoie, and confirm all I have said of the antiquity of the sothic 



period. Astronomy was, without question, an advanced science to 
the people, who could erect pyramids on the scale of those at Mem. 
phis ; but it does seem ridiculous and supererogatory, after the usea 
we know the Egyptians made of these edifices, to speculate upon the 
relations these kingly tombs may have had to the stars. They are all 
tombs, and nothing else. Kings were buried in them, and perhaps 
queens. In some (the pyramid of five steps, at Zaccara, for instance) 
other persons have also been buried besides the monarch ; probably 
members of the royal family, or of the royal household. 

If much labor has been wasted in guessing at the objects of the 
pyramids, still more has been thrown away in crude fancies as to 
their epoch, or their builders. Poor Herodotus, and his copyist Dio- 
dorus, themselves misunderstanding the accounts received from the 
priests, have been the cause of the greatest misconception on the 
part of their successors. The Greeks, who were correct in the names, 
lost themselves completely in anachronisms, when they pretended 
to define the epoch. While, although the learned Calmet and other 
Hebraists and travellers, have traced their origin to Moses and Aaron, 
and have wept over the supposed aggravation of the labors of the 
Jews, employed as forced laborers in erecting some of these pyra- 
mids ; it is satisfactory to be able to deduce from the unerring hiero- 
glyphics, that every Memphite pyramid was erected at least four 
centuries before Abraham, and that the Hebrews had nothing to do 
with them, except to look at them from the opposite shore of the 
Nile. The erection of the pyramids at Memphis alone, would take 
a longer time than the entire sojourn of the Jews in Egypt ; and even 
supposing it were proved that the Hebrews had assisted in the erection 
of some of those at Memphis, how did the Egyptians dispense with 
their services, or whom did they employ, in erecting those "in the 
Fayoom ? or in Upper Egypt? or those one hundred and thirty-nine 
pyramids 1500 miles up the Nile, on the plains of Meroe, in Ethiopia 1 

The Jewish theory in connection with the pyramids is also ex 
ploded, and we now proceed to show that, as the whole of those of 
Memphis were built between Menes and the accession of the 16th 
dyn., in B. C. 2272, these monuments antedate the era of Moses by 
at least 800 to 1000 years. 

Our text-book, Manetho, informs us that Venephes, the third king 
from Menes (whom we may conjecture occupied the throne withia 
a hundred years from that monarch,) erected the pyramids near Co- 
chome, or Choe, or Cochoma. This shows, historically, the antiquity 
of pyramidal constructions. 

I would casually remark, that the Great Sphinx, -whose mutilated 
features have given rise to so many discussions, although situated 
amid the pyramids of Gheezeh, has nothing to do with the epoch of 
the pyramids ; for, as I shall show hereafter, that great work belongs 
to a much later period — to the ] 8th Theban dynasty, not earlier than 
B. C. 1800, or several centuries after the cessation of pyramidal con 
structions. In due course, we shall arrive at this subject. 

We pass over the 2nd and 3rd dynasties, and begin with the 4th 
Memphite dynasty of 8, or according to another reading, of 17 kings. 

MANETHO'S FOURTH DYNASTY 
of eight (or seventeen) Memphite kings of a different race. 

1 — Soris reigned 29 years. 

2 — Suphis reigned 63 years. He built the largest pyramid, which 
Herodotus says was constructed by Cheops. He was 
arrogant* toward the gods, and wrote the sacred book, 
which is regarded by the Egyptians as a work of great 
importance. 

3 — Suphis reigned 66 years. 

4 — Mencheres " 63 " 

5 — Rhatoeses " 25 " 

6— Bicheris " 22 " 

7 — Sebercheres " 7 " 

8— Thampthis " 9 " 

Altogether, 284 years. 
The first king of this 4th dynasty is termed by Manetho, Soris. 
In one of the innumerable ancient tombs that are in the Necropolis 
of Memphis (fragments of which are now in the British Museum,) 
the following name occurs ; the first of a succession of four kings, 
whose names, it will be seen in the sequel, correspond to the his- 
torical lists. 

This name reads, as it stands, Re-sh-o. By meta- 
thesis, we are allowed to transpose the disk of the sun 
from the top, where it was placed out of respect to the 
, ™ 4 "H sh deity, to the bottom, and then it reads Sh-o-ke. The 
Greeks could not, by any combination of their alpha. 
"&. bet, express the articulation sh; so they were obliged 

J^ ° to write the name with an S, while the termination S 
^sTzL^ is a Greek addition to euphonize those Eastern names 

they were pleased to term barbarian : so that Sows in 
Greek, was Shore in Egyptian, designating one and the same person. 

* The obvious inconsistency in this passage, proceeds probablv from snn<e ir/l&.t 
error of transcription in Manetho stext. Heroaotus also speaks disparagingly of Cheops 
I advert to this point, to express my conviction, that in the construction of this and ot 
all the other pyramids, there was neither cruelty to the laborers employed; nor, beyond 
th» n agnitude of the undertaking, is there any reason to deem the erection of these 
mm- oleums to have been productive of inconvenience to the country, or contrary-to 
the institutions of that ancient, though peculiar nation. 



56 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



h 



The meaning of Sho-Re is, " Pharaoh dominator," or the " presiding 
sun." 

In the list of Eratosthenes, the 13th Theban king is Hauosis, 
translated by him arehicrator, or " chief of the mighty," which cor- 
responds to the meaning of Shore ; now, if we read the name Shore, 
it corresponds in sound, in construction, and in signification, to Ma. 
netho's Soris ; or, if we read it Besho, it corresponds in sound, in 
construction, and in signification, to the Rauosis of Eratosthenes. 
In both historians, Shore or Resho precedes the names of kings who 
immediately follow him in the hieroglyphical succession found in 
the tombs about the pyramids ; while, from the name having been 
found in it, there is every probability that he built the north pyramid 
of Abooseer. That which, however, is at this moment speculative, 
derives infinite corroboration from what follows ; as all the circum- 
stances that justify the antiquity of the one, attend on the position 
of the others. 

The second king, according to Manctho, of the 4th Memphite 
dynasty, was Suphis, who built the largest pyramid, which by Hero- 
dotus was said to have been constructed by Cheops. These are 
M anetho's words. In the succession found, as said before, among 
the tombs at Memphis, the next king who follows is — 

<""~^ > v Shoopho, whom the Greeks called Suphis the 1st. 

© ~ }Sh Eratosthenes gives as 15th Theban king, Saophis 1st. 
f^ He translates Saophis by comatus, meaning " many- 

^ .^r oo haired." Now, in Coptic, Shoo means many, and 

*"• " ph pho, hair. It was conjectured, fourteen years ago, 

■ ^ that this cartouche must represent the name of the 

^^ oo builder of the great pyramid ; having been found in 
. — *• J so many places, and most numerously in the ancient 

■^ """^ tombs about the Memphite pyramids at Gheezeh, &c. 

We had the authority of Manetho, that his king, Suphis 1st, was the 
same as the Cheops of Herodotus, who built the great pyramid ; 
and, philologically, in meaning and in sound, we identified this car- 
touche with the Saophis of Eratosthenes ; but it is curious to see 
the beautiful chain of connection that reconciles all differences, and 
it will give a distinct idea of the analectical process by which hier- 
ologists demonstrate their theorems, to expound it. 

The sign j«SH*k in hieroglyphics, may be read in two ways — 1st, 
it is equiva»|Pa lent to the Coptic letter |tt — Shci — which is 
our SH ; ^8»r 2nd. it is equivalent to the ££? Coptic letter 
Khei, — which, is our KH., hard and guttur al. The hiero 

glyphical letter is therefore either Sh, or Kh. 

The Greeks had not in their alphabet of 24 letters, the power of 
expressing the Sh of foreign languages, and were therefore obliged 
to transmute the sound as nearly, as to the ear of the writer this arti- 
culation could be conveyed — that is, sometimes by — a 

S — Xi — as in Scp^a — Xerxes, whose name in the arrowhead, or 
cuneiform (ancient Persian) character, as well as in hieroglyphics, 
was"KHSHEERSH.» Or by a 

S — Sigma — as in Manetho's HovQio Supltis. Or by a 

X — Chi — as in Herodotus' XtoTroo-, pronounced in Greek Hheeopos, 
but by us — Cheops. 

We are thus enabled etymologically to reduce, Suphis, Saophis, 
Cheops, to one and the same name, spelt differently, and thus recon- 
cile Manetho, Eratosthenes, and Herodotus. 

We now cut off the Greek termination of S, or is, with which they 
endeavored to soften down to a Grecian ear the rigidities of foreign 
names ; 

"Like oui harsh northern, whistling, grunting, guttural. 
Which we're obliged to hiss and spit and sputter all." 

The result of our reduction is to obtain in Greek, in Coptic, and 
in hieroglyphics, the name of Sooph, Shooph, or Khooph, as the name 
of the king who built the great pyramid — corroborated by Murtady, 
an Arab author — who says that in his day, tradition in Egypt still 
ascribed the erection of that pyramid to "Soyoof." 

Thus much was known up to 1837 — but the anti-Champollionists 
looked with disdain upon a science, which could not produce from 
the pyramid itself, confirmation of its unerring value ; and confidently 
declaring, that there were " no hieroglyphics in the pyramids," (al- 
though all antiquity asserts the contrary,) they vauntingly challenged 
the hierologists to prove, that hieroglyphical writing was known at 
the date of the pyramids — these gentlemen, forsooth, having already 
decreed, that " hieroglyphic writing was a subsequent invention," 
and that letters were derived from the Hebrews, or from the Greeks, 
or, at least, from the Phoenicians. 

But some things were written before Moses wrote ; and some 
heroes lived before Agamemnon : 

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnon.— Horace. 

In the year 1837, the munificent Col. Howard Vyse set all doubts 
at rest, by finding Shoopho (and his variation) in the quarrier's 
marks, in the new chamber of the great pyramid, scored in red ochre 
in hieroglyphics on the rough stones ; and thus, by confirming history 
and the sculptures, he has immortalized his own labors, and silenced 
the cavillers. 

It will now be seen that my diffidence, when declining to enter 
copiously into so vast a subject as the pyramids, without possessing 



the 3rd vol. of Vyse's work, is not uncalled for; suffice it at present 
to observe, that with the era of the great pyramid, (whenever that re- 
mote epoch was,) long before the year 2272, B.C. — long before Usher's 
date of the Deluge 2348 B. C. — ages previous to Abraham — centu- 
ries prior to the Jews — and many generations anterior to the Hyk- 
shos ; every hieroglyphical legend, or genealogical table, as well as 
all Egyptian local circumstances will be found to correspond, and 
harmonize — and yet, in that day, Egypt was not a new country, or 
its inhabitants a new people 

A papyrus now in Europe, -of the date of Shoopho, establishes the 
early use of written documents, and the antiquity of paper, made of 
the byblus. 

The tombs around the pyramids afford us abundance of sculptural 
and pictorial illustraf^on of manners and customs, and attest the 
height to which Civilization had attained in his day. While, in one 
of them, a hieroglyphical legend* tells us, that this is " the sepulchre 
of Eimei — great priest of the habitations of King Shoopho." This is 
probably that of the architect, according to whose plans and direc- 
tions, the mighty edifice — near the foot of which he once reposed — 
the largest, best constructed, most ancient, and most durable of 
Mausolea in the world, was built ; and which, from 4000 to 5000 
years after his decease, still stands an imperishable record of his skill. 

Shoopho's name is also found in the Thebaid, as the date of a 
tomb at Chenoboscion. In the peninsula of Mount Sinai, his name 
and tablets show, that the copper mines of that Arabian district were 
worked for him. Above his name the titles " pure King and sacred 
Priest" are in strict accordance with Asiatic institutions, wherein 
the chief generally combines in his own person the attributes of 
temporal and spiritual dominion. His royal golden signet has been 
discovered since I left Egypt, and is now in the collection of my 
friend Doct. Abbott, of Cairo. The sculptures of the Memphite 
Necropolis inform us, that Memphis once held a palace called "the 
abode of Shoopho." 

If these facts be not sufficient — if it be still maintained, that Shoo- 
pho, who employed 100,000 men for 20 years, in erecting a monu- 
ment, for which 10 preceding years were requisite merely to prepare 
the materials, and the causeway whereon the stone was to be carried 
— a pyramid of limestone blocks, quarried on the eastern side of the 
Nile, while the edifice was raised some 20 miles off, on the western 
side of the river — the former base of which was once 764 feet each 
face — the original height 480 feet — containing 89,028,000 cubic feet 
of solid masonry, and 6,848,000 tons of stone — if Shoopho performed 
all these works, is it in common sense, I ask, to doubt his power, or 
that he ruled all over Egypt ? 

But if, rejecting all these evidences, and the testimony of Eratos- 
thenes that he was likewise a Theban king — the impracticability of 
his being contemporary with any other Egyptian king be not suffi- 
ciently proven ; and that Shoopho was merely a petty king of Mem- 
phis be still asserted, let me propound the following query : 

How is it, that the great pyramid is lined with the most beautiful 
and massive blocks of syenite — of red granite, not one particle of 
which exists 25 miles below the 1st Cataract of the Nile at Aswan, 
distant 640 miles up the river from the pyramid ? that blocks of this 
syenite are found in this pyramid's chambers and passages of such 
dimensions and built into such portions of the masonry, that they 
must evidently have been placed there, before the upper limestone 
masonry was laid above the granite ? and, that the name of Shoopho, 
in hieroglyphics, is found in that central interior, written on the super- 
jacent limestone blocks ; where the latter layers must, in the order of 
building, have been placed after the granite had been covered up 
below ? 

There not being in its native state a speck of granite to be found in 
Egypt, 25 miles below the 1st Cataract, its existence in the pyramid 
distant 640 miles from the quarries, is a final proof, that Shoopho 
ruled from Memphis to Aswan — from " Migdol to the tower of 
Syene." 

For my own part, I see no plausible doubts why his dominion 
may not have been, like that of his successors, much more extensive 
than over Egypt proper — especially toward Lybia and Nigritia. 

The 3rd King of the 4th Dynasty is — 

Suphis 2rd— 3d King of the 4th Memphite Dynasty — Manetho. 
Saophis 2nd, or Sensaophist-16th King of Thebes— Eratosthenes ; 
correspanding to the Chephren, brother of Cheops, who, according 
to Herodotus and Diodorus, built a pyramid ; which, we may infer, 
was the second pyramid of Gheezeh, seeing that we know histori- 
cally and monumentally the builders of the first and third. We also 
know he was king both of Thebes and Memphis. Of this king Che- 
phren, nothing has yet been gleaned from the pyramid attributed to 
him — but, philological analogies can reduce all these names into one. 
I will not detain the reader with some doubts arising from hierogly- 
phical variations in one or two ca'rtouches of these times ; although 
they are curious, and I can explain them, at least to my own satis- 
faction ; but pass on to say, that in the absence of positive pyramidal 
data, I feel inclined to adopt the following oval, as probably contain- 
ing the name of Chephren : 



* See L'Hotes letters— Paris, 1839. 
) t Sen-saopnis is an error in Goal's Syncelius. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



57 



^w^ 



u 



Ka j Re 



Re Reshaph — Reshef— Reshoof or Rekhooph, 

or 
sh Shafre — Shephre — Shoophre or Khephre, 
ph now 

Shephre — corresponds to Chephre-n, 

Khephre " Kefpri-p. 

Besides being found in the Necropolis of Memphis and in a genea- 
logical series, that places him as a Memphite king of the same epoch 
as Shoopho this oval is always accompanied by titles, that contain, 
among other signs, that of a pyramid. ■ 

But no doubt hangs around the name of the following monarch, 
and nothino- can any longer render his identity with the builder of 
the 3rd pyramid, a subject of controversy : 

Manetho— 4th King of " Memphite Dynasty"— Mencheres, 
Eratosthenes — 17th King of Thebes — " Heliodotus" — Moscheres, 
Diodorus — as commencer of a " third pyramid"— Mykerincs, 
Herodotus — as erector of a " smaller pyramid" — Mykerinus. 
The fragment of the royal Mummy-Case (now in the British mu. 
seum) which the Arabs, on forcing a passage into the 3rd pyramid, 
(at the time of the Caliphate, 600 Hegira, or about 650 years ago, 
according to Edrisi,) had thrown aside on a heap of rubbish, after 
destroying the mummy : presented to the researches of Col. Vyse, 
in 1837, the following oval as the glorious reward of his labors : 

^___ MENKARE ; 



Re "j men ^nd t hus again is history authenticated by 
I the monuments even in the meaning of Era- 

BQSS men | Ka tosthenes, who translates Mencheres by Helio- 
v| pvi V 1 dotus — for the oval of Menkare will bear the 

U U if n '| R. fi acceptation of " offerings beloved by or dedi- 
cated to the sun." The same arguments, even 
to the granite, will apply to Menkare that have 
established Shoopho's dominion all over Egypt. This oval is well 
known at the copper mines of Wadee-Magara, and has been found 
in other places in the vicinity of Memphis. 

Out of eight kings, of the fourth Memphite Dynasty, whose names 
have been preserved by Manetho, and corroborated by other histo- 
rians (three Pharaohs, who were connected with the building of the 
three' largest pyramids of Gheezeh, being among them) the hiero- 
glyphics enable us to indicate four with precision, and two with in- 
controvertible evidence, viz : 
Shore — Sons. 

Shoopho — Cheops, or Suphis lst,found in the pyramid. 
Shephre — Chephren. ^ 

Menkare — Mencheres. ' 

Who, twenty-five years ago, could have expected such wonderful 
confirmations of the unerring application of Champollion's discove. 
ries ? Who will now assert, that hieroglyphic writing was not known 
in the time of the pyramids ? 

Here for the present may rest our verification of ancient history, 
and our application of hieroglyphical tests in connection with the 
pyramids. There are many ovals of kings, (whom we term " un- 
placed," because we do not know where exactly to insert them in 
our chronological list) who belong to the time of Shoopho, as his 
predecessors °or successors— some found at the Necropolis of Mem- 
phis others elsewhere ; and, although we cannot identify them 

with historical names, or say which pyramid is the tomb of any of 
them, yet there seems every probability, arguing from that which has 
been' done already, what may be eventually accomplished, that 
much new light will be thrown on them to add more confirmatory 
facts to the view herein taken. Those who have made a study of 
hieroglyphics, are perfectly certain that future discoveries can but 
confirm the past, and extend the present boundaries of our knowledge. 

In chronological order, and in number of kings, these " unplaced 
Pharaohs," go = wonderfully to confirm Manetho. Besides finding 
the names of the builders of the pyramids of Gheezeh, it must be 
considered that there are, between large and small, some twenty-five 
pyramids and pyramidal tombs in the cemetery of Memphis. Sup- 
pose each of them to have contained the sepulchre of one monarch, 
(and all proofs confirm this view) the number of kings' tombs, when 
we make allowance for some monarchs who may not have thought 
it incumbent on themselves to erect such a mausoleum, strangely 
corroborates the number of sovereigns comprised in the early Mem- 
phite dynasties of Manetho ; for he gives about thirty-two kings, and 
here we find some twenty-five pyramidal resting places for them. 

It is recorded, that it took 30 years to build the largest — the tomb 
of Shoopho ; which is not at all an exaggerated view of the necessary 
time. There are about 10 others, none of which could well have 
been built in less than 20 years. The remainder may have ocenpied 
from 3 to 10 years each. 

Then . 1 X 30 - - - 30 

10 X 20 - - 200 

» . - 13 X say average 5 years, 65 

295, or about 300 years, 
supposing they were built consecutively (and such must have been 
the method, since they are the sepulchres or consecutive kings,) for 



the actual time required merely for their erection. Now, suppos- 
ing that of Manetho's 32 Memphite monarchs, only 20 erected 
pyramids, and allow the average of 22J years as the mean length of 
reigns, or kingly generations, we obtain at once 450 years ; when, 
if we consider, that a few years may have intervened before each 
individual king decided on building a pyramid ; and that, in some 
cases, the tomb may have been finished before the monarch's demise 
— for, in Egypt, people built their sepulchres during their own life- 
time — we shall find that between Menes and the 16th dynasty, 443 
years are not too much time to allow for edifices, the mere building 
of which must have occupied some 300 years. 

Now, all these works had been completed, and pyramidal con- 
structions had ceased to be fashionable, in Egypt, long prior to the 
accession of the 16th dynasty, or B. C. 2272 ; and yet they were all 
built after Menes. When, therefore, we allow only 443 years' in- 
terval for all the events between Menes and the 16th dynasty, it will 
be conceded that we are within the mark, possibly by several cen- 
turies ; but, in the absence of positive data, I prefer not to disturb 
the view of chronology herein taken — which places Menes about 
equidistant between the Flood on the Septuagint version, and the 
accession of the 16th dynasty. Yet, I will confess my inability to 
adopt this arrangement as a permanent one ; for if any adequate 
authority were to add 1000 years to the Septuagint, there are ma- 
terials to fill the space. As for reduction of my system to a narrower 
limit, it cannot be done, without abandoning facts, reason, logical 
deduction, and truth itself. To bring the case home : how many 
years has it taken to construct the " Monument at Bunker Hill," 
Boston; the " Merchants' Exchange," or the " Custom-House," at 
New York ? It may be objected, that unforeseen impediments re- 
tarded the progress of the work, in one or all of these instances. 
It may well be supposed, therefore, that similar delays took place in 
the construction of the 25 Memphite pyramids, which will equalize 
the comparison. In point of perfection of masonry, these American 
edifices are not superior to the work in the pyramids — while, in point 
of cubic feet of stone, if the materials of all these were put together, 
,they would not construct the least of the largest ten pyramids in the 
Necropolis of Memphis ! We can thus form an estimate of the 
time it must have taken to erect them ; and may be prepared for 
the assertion that a period of 300 years is within the mark for the 
pyramidal works existing, at the present day, to attest the antiquity 
of Memphis ; the territorial dominion, and consequent power — and 
uncontemporaneotjsness — of her early Pharaohs ; and the wealth, 
the population and the wonderful progress, at that remote era, 
already made in all arts and sciences by the Egypto-Caucasians ; as 
well as the imperious necessity for a more extended chronology than 
the Hebrew version. It may be remarked, that some pyramids at 
Memphis — those of Aboorooash, Abooseer, Zaccara, and Dashoor — 
appear to be much older than even the Great Pyramid of Shoopho. 
This circumstance corroborates Manetho, wherein he says, that 
Venephes, 4th king of 1st dynasty, " raised pyramids at Cochome ;" 
whereby we learn from history that pyramidal constructions were in 
use many generations before Suphis-Cheops, or Shoopho. Nor does 
it seem probable, that Shoopho would have erected such an enormous 
pile as the largest, if he had not wished to outdo all his predecessors. 
We know, that two pyramids — the second and third — were con- 
structed after that of Shoopho ; and if they did not equal his in 
gigantic dimensions, both of them had peculiar merits of their own, 
to equalize the apparent difference, in the grandeur of the concep- 
tion, and the relative labor of execution — one having been coated 
with stucco, the other cased with granite brought from Syene. 

Memphis is, therefore, historically and monumentally, the oldest 
city, and it lies in Lower Egypt. I will hereafter explain, why 
Thebes is historically coeval with, perhaps anterior to Memphis, 
though, monumentally speaking, it is inferior in antiquity. It would 
be tedious to proffer a special argument, whereby we can prove that, 



All cities of Lower 
Egypt, are historically 
as ancient as Memphis; 
and that the Delta was 
studded with towns at 
the earliest epoch, prob- 



Tanis — the " Tzohan " of Scripture, 

Pelusium, 

Tahapenes, 

Bubastis — " Pibeseth" of Scripture, 

Heliopoljs — "Beth-Shemmim" and "On," 

Buto, Taposiris, Sais, &c. &c, 

ably long prior to the foundation of a metropolis like that of 

Memphis. 

I do not know whether the observation has ever been made by 
others, but it has often struck me, in my reflections on Egyptian 
history, as a singular fact; that, although Eratosthenes makes all his 
early kings Thebans, other authors, especially Manetho, invariably 
keep us in the lower country, and about Memphis, in the classifica- 
tion of early monarchs. The superior antiquity of the names of 
placed and unplaced kings found in the loicer country, and the un- 
controvertable priorit) of the monuments existing at Memphis, bear 
witness to the truth of the record.* Moreover, the only royal names 
we can perfectly identify in the respective catalogues of Manetho 
and Eratosthenes, after Menes — are Soris or liauosis, Suphis or 



* It is a striking fact, that the more ancient monuments of Egypt, instead of being 
found high up the river, actually lie North— the primitive edifices being the pyramids of 
Lower Egypt— the most ancient tombs and excavutions being at Memphis at Wadee- 
Magara, and, generally speaking, about the Heplanomide. Iowe this remark to Samuel 
Birch, Esq., of the British Museum. 



56 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



Saophis,\st and 2nd, together with Mencheres or Moscheres, (all names 
of Pharaohs, which I have produced in hieroglyphics,) and these are 
every one of them placed by Manetho in his '1th Memphite dynasty, 
and by Eratosthenes in his Theban list, not later than the 17th 
monarch from Menes. 

Now, if the kings recognized in the copy of the archives of the 
Diospolitan priests as Theban sovereigns, are the same persons as 
those we find attributed by Manetho to Memphite families ; may we 
not draw a reasonable inference, that these, at least, ruled, like Me- 
nes, all over Egypt ? holding, as each of them evidently did, supreme 
power in both of the great cities of the Nilotic valley. Cities, sepa- 
rated by a distance of 480 miles ; and when to embrace Egypt, 
throughout its entire length, and narrow breadth, under one undivided 
sway, it was necessary only to subjugate the 120 miles between 
Memphis and the sea, and the 138 miles between Thebes and the 
1st Cataract of Syene. If they held, as monumentally and historic- 
ally we prove they did, Thebes and Memphis, what could prevent 
their holding the remainder ? 

Indeed, setting aside indisputable monumental facts and limiting 
our regard to history alone, sacred history will permit us to infer, 
and profane history will allow us to assert, that the sceptre of Menes 
was held by each of his successors, alone and indivisible, down to 
the-anvasion of the Hykshos, several centuries after the days of the 
pyramids, to which we are confining our present inquiries : while, 
from Manetho, from the old Chronicle, and from Herodotus, we learn 
that the families, or monarchs, who successively held that sceptre, 
either were from Lower Egypt, or were, in some mode or other, 
therewith connected by buildings, or great works, though their sway 
stretched from the Mediterranean at least as far as the 1st Cataract. 
On reference to the subjoined table of Manetho's dynasties, it will be 
seen that the first Dyn. was Thinite, or of This, near Abydos, 
whence sprung Menes, or Menei, and he built Memphis, the oldest 
city and the first metropolis of Egypt. The 2nd was Tanite. The 
3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th, are all Memphite. I do not omit the 
introduction of the family from Elephantine, or the absurdity of lim- 
iting their suppositious sway to that ridiculous little rock, not so, 
large or fertile as Governor's Island, in the harbor of New York. 
If they were kings at all, they ruled over all Egypt ; and were termed 
Elephantinite, merely, perhaps, because the first of this family hap- 
pened to be born there ; or from some other equally insignificant 
reason. The 9th and 10th are Heliopolite ; while it cannot escape 
attention, that of the few early events noted by Manetho, and (with 
exceptions, proceeding mainly from their erroneous classification of 
monarchs) by Herodotus, and Diodorus, the greater number of events 
make Lower and Middle Egypt the scene of their occurrence ! 

The importance of confining history to its legitimate place — to 
Lower Egypt, is evident : 

1st. Because it was in Lower Egypt that the Caucasian children 
of Ham must have first settled, on their arrival from Asia. 

2nd. Because the advocates of the theory, which would assert the 
African origin of the Egyptians, say they rely chiefly on history for 
their African, or Ethiopian predilections. 

3rd. Because the same theorists* assume, that we must begin 



*I have already stated, that Sir. J. Gardner Wilkinson's critical observations, during 
his long residence in Egypt ; and his comparisons between the present Egyptians and 
the ancient race, as depicted on the monuments, have led him to assert the Jlsiatic ori- 
gin of the early inhabitants of the Nilotic valley. The learned hierologist, Samuel 
Birch, Esq., of the British museum, informed me in London that he had arrived at the 
same conclusions ; while to his suggestion am I indebted for the first idea, " that the 
most ancient Egyptian monuments lie Nortk." The great naturalists, Blumenbach 
and Cuvier, declared that all the mummies they had opportunities of examining, pre- 
sented the Caucasian type. Monsieur Jomard, the eminent hydrographerand profound 
Orientalist, in a paper on Egyptian ethnology, appended to the 3rd volume of " Men- 
gins Histoirede PEgypte," Paris, 1839, sustains the Arabian (and consequently Jisiatic 
and Caucasian) origin of the early Egyptians; and his opinions are the more valuable, 
as he draws his conclusions independently of hieroglyphical discoveries. On the other 
hand, Professor Rosellini, throughout his " Monumenti" accepts and continues the 
doctrine, of the descent of civilization from Ethiopia, and the African origin of the 
Egyptians. Champollion Figeac, in his "Egypte Aucienne," Paris, 1840, p. 28, 34, 417, 
supports the same theory, which his illustrious brother set forth in the sketch of Egyp- 
tian history presented by him to Mohammed Ali, in 1829, (published in his letters from 
Egypt and Nubia,) wherein, he derives the ancient Egyptians, according to the Grecian 
authorities, from Ethiopia ; and considers them to belong to " la Race Barabra ;" the 
Berbers or Nubians. Deeming the original Barabra to have been an African race, 
ingrafted at the present day with Caucasian as well as Negro blood, I reject their simili- 
tude to: the monumental Egyptians in toto; and am fain to believe, that Champollion 
le Jeune himself had either modified his previous hastily-formed opinion, or, at any 
rate, had not taken a decided stand on this important point, from the following extract 
of his eloquent address from the academic chair, delivered 10th May, 1831. 

" Grammaire Egyptienne, p. xix.— C'est par 1'analyse raisonnee de la langue des 
Pharaons, que rethnographie decidera silavieille population egyptienne futd'origine 
A8IA.tiq.tje, ou bien siclle descendit, avec le fleuve divinise, des plateaux de 1'AfiTque 
centrale. On decidera en meme temps si les Egyptiens n'appartenaient point a une 
race d : stincte; car.il faut le declarer ici, (in which I entirely agree with him)contre 
1'opinion commune, les Coptks de I'Egypte moderne, regardes comme les derniers 
lejetons des anciens Egyptienes, n'ont ofTert a mes yeux ni la couleur ni aucun des traits 
caracteristiques, dans les lineaments du visage ou dans les formes du corps, qui put. con- 
stater une aussi noble descendance." 

It may be added, that the linguistic desideratum looked for by Champollion, has, since 
his demise, been fully supplied by the profound paleographer, Dr. Leipsius, of Berlin, 
who has established the Asiatic affinities of the Coptic tonge, while the prospective' 
journey of the Prussian Scientific Mission to Meroe, in the ensuing winter, will probably 
set all Ethiopic questions at rest. 

The "Crania iEgyptiaca," erected on a foundation hitherto unanticipated by any 
ethnological inquirer, and combining every view of the subject/will create a new era in 
the history of man, as honorable to its author, as important to the savan, and eminently 
■^vantageons to the scientific reputation of his country. 



with Africans at the top of the Nile, and come downward with 
civilization, instead of commencing with Asiatics and white men at 
the bottom, and carrying it up. 

I have not as yet touched on ethnography ; the effects of climate , 
and the antiquity of the different races of the human family ; but I 
shall come to those subjects, after establishing a chronological stand- 
ard, by defining the history of Egypt according to the hieroglyphics. 
At present, I intend merely to sketch the events connected with the 
Caucasian children of Ham, the Asiatic, on the first establishment 
of their Egyptian monarchy, and the foundation of their first and 
greatest metropolis in Lower Egypt. 

The African theories are based upon no critical examination of 
early history ; are founded on no Scriptural authority for early migra- 
tions ; are supported by no monumental evidence, or hieroglyphical 
data ; and cannot be borne out, or admitted, by practical common 
sense. For civilization, that never came northward out of benighted 
Africa, (but from the Deluge to the present moment has been carried 
but partially into it ; to sink into utter oblivion among the barbarous 
races whom Providence created to inhabit the Ethiopian and Nigri- 
tian territories of that vast continent) could not spring from Negroes, 
or from Berbers, and never did. 

So far then, as the record, scriptural, historical and monumental, 
will afford us an insight into the early progress of the human race in 
Egypt, (the most ancient of all civilized countries) we may safely 
assert, that history when analyzed by common sense ; when scruti. 
nized by the application of the experience bequeathed to us by our 
forefathers ; when subjected to a strictly impartial examination into, 
and comparison of the physical and mental capabilities of nations ; 
when distilled in the alembic of chronology ; and submitted to the 
touchstone of hieroglyphical tests, will not support that superan- 
nuated, but untenable doctrine, that civilization originated in Ethi- ■ 
opia, and consequently among an African people, and was by them 
brought down the Nile to enlighten the less-polished, and therefore 
inferior, Caucasian children of Noah — the white Asiatics ; or that 
we, who trace back to Egypt the origin of every art and science 
known in antiquity, have to thank the sable Negro, or the dusky 
Berber, for the first gleams of knowledge and invention. 

We may therefore conclude with the observation, that if civiliza- 
tion, instead of going from North to South, came — contrary, as 
shown before, to the annals of the earliest historians, and all monu- 
mental facts — down the " Sacred Nile" to illumine our darkness ; 
and if, the Ethiopic origin of arts and sciences, with social, moral, 
and religious institutions, were in other respects possible ; these Afri- 
can theoretic conclusions would form a most astounding exception 
to the ordinations of Providence, and the organic laws of nature, 
otherwise so undeviating throughout all the generations of man's 
history since the Flood. 

Having indicated the lowest boundary of our chronological limit 
for the pyramids of Memphis ; and shown that they could not well 
have been built at a later date than Usher's era of the Deluge, B. C, 
2348; I proceed to a few generalities on those 139 pyramids found 
at Gebel-Birkel, Noori, and Merawe, in Ethiopia. The largest of all 
these has a base of only 100 feet square, and the smallest not more 
than 20 ; so that in dimensions, they are inferior to the smallest of 
the Memphite pyramids. According to the opinion of Mr. Hoskins, 
they are all more ancient than those of Memphis ; but the reasons he 
adduces, are not by any means conclusive. I have examined the 
subject with a good deal of attention, and am of opinion that they 
may be coeval with those of Memphis, but probably in many instan- 
ces, are posterior. 

Many of these pyramids contain hieroglyphical tablets, and sculp- 
tures that are indisputably Egyptian in form, style, coloring, and sub- 
jects, whence we may derive two conclusions. One, that hierogly. 
phical writing was known and practised, at whatever period these 
pyramids were erected ; the other, that they were built by the same 
Caucasian race of men who erected those mightier edifices at Mem- 
phis. We are also assured, that in purpose they were identical with 
the sepulchral uses of those of Egypt, and contained, like these last, 
the tombs of monarchs or royal families. 

With regard to the epoch of the construction of the Ethiopian 
pyramids, we have as yet no data beyond the evidences of remote, 
though indefinable antiquity ; but that they were built by the same 
race of men,* who founded those at Memphis, is established beyond 
dispute, by Mr. Hoskins. This accurate draughtsman and faithful 
narrator has, with strict impartiality, furnished facts whence he would 
deduce — 

1st. The priority of the Meroe" pyramids over those of Memphis — 
and secondly, that being built by the same people in both cases, he 
would establish the origin of civilization in Ethiopia, and its descent 
(down the Nile) into Egypt, where the descendants of these builders 
of Ethiopian pyramids erected all the monuments of every age, now 
existing below the first Cataract. 

With precisely the same facts, and grounding all my arguments on 



* Dr. Morton, in his craniological observations, has declared " that the Austral- 
Egyptian, or Meroite communities, were in great measure derived from the Indo- Arabian 
stock ; thus pointing to a triple-Caucasian source for the origin of the Egyptians, when 
regarded as one people extending from Meroe to the Delta." The arguments for this 
opinion, which is by me implicitly adopted, will be found in the "Crania ^Egyptiaca," 
and I need only at present mention, that this Indo-Arabian intermixture with the chil- 
dren of Ham, can be readily accounted for. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



59 



the plates and descriptions of Mr. Hoskins, I arrive at results dia- 
metrically opposite. 

It is indeed sufficient to glance one's eye at the plates of the sculp, 
tures from the Ethiopian pyramids, to sec that there is nothing Afri- 
can in the character of the human faces ; and that, be they who they 
may, these people were not, and did not desrre to be considered Afri- 
cans, whether of the Berber or the Negro branches. Whence, already 
we begin to infer, that the builders of these Ethiopian pyramids were 
not aborigines of that country, but of a race foreign to Africa, and 
generally speaking, at that remote period unmixed with African 
blood. Unless born in Ethiopia, they must have come originally 
from some other region. Who can they be ? 

Now it is but reasonable to claim, that if in arts, sciences, customs, 
religion, color and physiological conformation, these people of Meroe 
are the same people as the Egyptians, and we prove the Egyptians to 
have been Asiatic in origin — Caucasian in race, and white men in 
color : the people of Meroe must have been Asiatics, Caucasians and 
white men also. This was precisely the case, and for the Egyptian 
eide of the question, I need not recapitulate the account of Mizraim's 
migration into the valley of the Nile, but refer to Morton's "Crania 
jEgyptiaca" for incontrovertible evidence. 

The question, in regard to the priority of erection between the pyra- 
mids of Meroe, and those of Memphis, merges into the still more 
interesting fact of their having been built by the same race of men, 
who were not Africans, but Caucasians. 

This will a* once explain the cause of the superiority of the inhab- 
itants of Meroe, over all African aborigines, and the reason why the 
Egyptians looked upon them as brethren and friends — never stigma- 
tizing them by the contemptuous title of " Gentiles," or " impure 
foreigners," as they designated Asiatic and European nations ; and 
never applying to the people of Meroe, the reproach of belonging to 
the "perverse race of Rush," (not Cush, the son of Ham) by which 
name the Egyptians exclusively designated the Negro and the Berber 
races in hieroglyphics. We shall come to these facts in due course. 
This view can be sustained by the whole chain of monumental and 
other history. It will account for all the conflicting traditionary 
legends, that would make Meroe the parent of Egyptian civilization, 
or Ethiopia the cradle of the Egyptian people — will explain the inti- 
macy and alliance subsisting at every period between Egypt and Me- 
roe ; the parity in religion ; identity in usages and institutions ; 
similarity in language, writing, buildings, &c. 

I would therefore offer, as an improved hypothesis, that the chil- 
dren of Ham, on leaving Asia and settling in the valley of the Nile, 
colonized first Lower Egypt, and then all the alluvial soil from the 
Delta, to the confines of Nigritia, wherein they did not penetrate for 
permanent establishment, for the identical reason, that white men 
cannot do so at the present time — the climate; which, in Central Africa, 
is mortiferous to the Caucasian. It does not change his skin, hair, 
facial angle, or his osteology; it kills him outright, if he crosses a cer- 
tain latitude. Of course, here and there, an exception may be instanced 
where white men have crossed the (to their race) deadly miasmata 
of Central Africa ; but these exceptions are so rare, that they fortify 
the rule. Witness the late Niger expedition ; witness the grave-yard 
that Afric% has been to the most enterprising travellers ; witness the 
fruitless attempts of Mohammed Ali to send expeditions, but a few 
hundred miles beyond Khartoom. 

The Caucasian children of Ham proceeded up the Nile in a nat- 
ural course of migration and settlement, from Lower Egypt as far as 
Meroe — and probably there (although it would seem likely in later 
times) met Indo-Arabian Caucasians, with whom they mixed, and 
formed one people. 

All we can say of this epoch is, that these circumstances must 
have occurred before Menes ; before the pyramids of Memphis rose 
in Egypt ; before the pyramids of Meroe could have been built in 
Ethiopia. 

That civilization advanced northward from the Thebaid (which 
appears to have been the parental seat of the theocratic government) 
before Menei, is not improbable. That the Caucasians who settled 
at Meroe may have somewhat preceded in civilization their brethren 
in Egypt, is possible ; though, from monumental and other reasons, I 
deem it unlikely. But it does seem unnecessary, that the children 
of Ham, (the Caucasian,) the highest caste of that triple Caucasian 
stock, should have come from Asia into Egypt, and have directly 
ascended the Nile, leaving the most eligible provinces and heavenly 
climate behind them, and have proceeded 1600 miles to an almost 
barren spot, to Meroe, between the tropics, for the objects of study 
and improvement, and then have returned into Egypt to colonize 
that country, or in other words to civilize their own relations. How 
much more reasonable is it to attribute the rise of civilization to the 
people, occupying the best land under the pure skies of Egypt, or to 
suppose that its development was simultaneous among the same 
people, along the whole alluvial line from Lower Egypt to Meroe ? 

There are no positive data by which the antiquity of the pyramids 
of Meroe is shown to be more remote than that of Memphis ; and I 
am inclined to regard both as dating about the same period, when 
pyramidal constructions were preferred to all others, for the last 
habitation of the royal dignitaries of Egypt and Meroe. It may be 
conjectured, that if in Ethiopia these are tombs of individual kings, 
they continued there to erect pyramids long after this species of 



sepulchre was abandoned in Egypt ; because this would in some 
degree explain their number. They were all built, and were ancient, 
in the days of Tirhaka, B. C. 700. 139 pyramids, at 22£ years for a 
kingly generation, would be 3027J years ; which is incompatible 
with all scriptural chronology. I am, therefore, inclined to consider 
the pyramids of Meroe to be tombs of kings, queens and princes. 
We have no sure basis for calculating their antiquity, excepting that 
they belong to a period more ancient than 700 B. C. ; but we know, 
that whenever they were erected, it was by the same race which 
built those of Memphis, the children of Ham — the Caucasian settlers 
in the Nilotic valley, and not by African aborigines of any race, or 
of any period. The most critical examination establishes for the 
pyramids of Egypt, and for Shoopho, builder of the largest, an anti. 
quity that cannot certainly be later than B.C. 2348 — though probably 
dating some centuries earlier ; but that they were erected by Cauca- 
sians is indisputable. That the pyramids of Meroe belong to the 
same epoch is probable, ancf that they were likewise built by Cauca. 
sians is positive. 

If the pyramids of Meroe are older than those of Memphis, their 
epoch must necessarily surpass the Septuagint era of the Flood, if 
not that of the Creation. 

If, from a rigid examination of their present appearance, the priority 
of those at Meroe is proved, (as Mr. Hoskins considers,) and this 
aged appearance cannot be explained by the effects of tropical rains 
and solar heat, acting with the hand of the spoiler on a friable mate, 
rial like a soft sandstone ; when we reflect how little, in an Egyptian 
climate, time affects the appearance of monuments ; and then, (though 
erroneously,) recognize in Ethiopia a better climate than that of 
Egypt — if, I say, we consider that notwithstanding so long a period, 
(above 4000 years,) as we know the Memphite pyramids to have 
stood — time has had such a trifling effect on their massive structures; 
and we are to allow a still slighter effect to be produced by time on 
those edifices at Meroe — why, we must carry the pyramids of Meroe 
beyond all chronological, and measure their antiquity by geological 
periods ; 1st, as regards the epoch of the building of these Meroe 
pyramids ; which is one fact ; and 2nd, as concerns the national 
traits of the builders, who were not Africans, but Asiatics, the utter 
destruction of all biblical chronology by this process would ba 
another. 

Now, " things which are equal to the same are equal to one 
another." If they are anterior to Shoopho's pyramid in Egypt, then 
Meroe must have been occupied in the earliest ages — many centuries 
before B. C. 2348 — by Caucasians, who must have migrated up the 
valley of the Nile, and have been settled many ages at Meroe before 
they erected one pyramid. If posterior to Shoopho's pyramid, Meroe 
was a colony of Egypto-Caucasians, at any intervening period prior 
to the 16th dynasty, B.C. 2272 — for we know from positive con. 
quests of Egyptian Pharaohs in Nigritia and Ethiopia, that Meroe 
was an Egyptian province from about that time, down to a few years 
prior to B. C. 700 — say for a thousand years. 

But, if each of these pyramids of Ethiopia, like those of Memphis, 
be the sepulchre of a king, and if all of these Meroe edifices, (ac- 
cording to Mr. Hoskins) were erected before Shoophos' time, as there 
are 139 pyramids in Ethiopia, we should have 139 generations of 
Caucasian kings at Meroe before the pyramids of Memphis were 
thought of. 

Lastly, if the advocates of the African origin of the Egyptians 
cling to the superior antiquity of the pyramids at Meroe, as a proof 
of the origin of civilization in Ethiopia, and its consequent descent 
into Egypt, they are easily placed in a series of dilemmas. If they 
deny all Caucasian introduction at Meroe, in the hope of vindicating 
the ancient mental and physioal capabilities of Negro or Berber 
races ; as I have proved the immense and almost biblically-irrecon- 
cilable antiquity of the Memphite pyramids, the advocates of the 
African origin of civilization must reject Scripture altogether, both 
for chronology and primitive migrations. If, on the other hand, they 
al'ow, that, according to the Bible, Ham was the parent of the Egyp- 
tians, as we prove these Egyptians to have been pure-blooded while 
men, they must allow that civilization, proceeding from the Cauca- 
sians, took its rise in Egypt; and that Ethiopian civilization is a con- 
sequence; while, in no case, can they make it appear that, the African 
races above Egypt were one iota more civilized in ancient times than 
at the present day, for the civilization of Meroe originated with the 
Caucasians, and expired on the extinction, or on the deteriorating 
amalgamation, of their high-caste race. 

Such are the results of my reflections on the subject of the pyra- 
mids. They are not rashly advanced ; nor devoid of infinite corro- 
boration. They might be greatly extended, and a variety of inte. 
resting comparisons might be instituted between the pyramids of 
Ethiopia and Egypt, and those found on the Euphrates by Cokmet 
Chesney, that one supposed to be the ruins of the tower of Babel, 
and those in Central America. 

My province, however, is solely Egyptian history ; and I will con- 
fidently assert, that any one who will read and study the works of 
the hieroglyphical school — the volumes of the Champollions, of Ro- 
sellini, and of Wilkinson — who will weigh the demonstrations in 
Morton's "Crania ./Egyptiaca," and who, to remove the last atoms 
of scepticism, will pay a visit to Egypt's time-honored monuments, 
and verify for himself the truth of the descriptions given by the hiero- 



bO 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



logists — any one.. I repeat, who will do all this, (which I have done) 
and then deny these evidences, would, I really believe, dispute the 
truth of Euclid's axiom, and maintain that " a straight line is not the 
shortest distance from one given point to another." 

Let me recapitulate, in a summary mode, what these results are : 

let. Geologically — that the Delta is as ancient as any portion of 
the alluvial soil of the Nile, and that it was inhabited at the earliest 
postdiluvian period. 

2nd. Geographically — that Lower Egypt was by climate, soil, and 
every circumstance, most favorable to early settlement ; and as the 
most contiguous to Asia, was the region best adapted to primitive 
colonization, and the earliest civilization. 

3rd. Scriplurally — that the children of Ham came from the banks 
of the Euphrates into Egypt, through Syria, Palestine, and the Isth. 
mus of Suez — that they inhabited the lower provinces of the Nilotic 
valley in the first instance, whence they eventually spread them- 
selves over the alluvial soil of that valley, in a natural order of mi- 
gration and settlement. 

4th. Physiologically — which, for the first time is clearly demon- 
strated by Morton's "Crania jEgyptiaca," the keystone of the sys- 
tem : that the ancient inhabitants of Egypt were Asiatic in origin, 
and Caucasian in race, from the earliest period to the extinction of 
Pharaonic dominion, which is in perfect accordance with Scriptural 
migrations, and their Caucasian origin as descendants of Noah. 

5th. Ethnographically — according to Dr. Leipsius, that, as the 
affinities of the Indo-Germanic and Semitic languages with the Cop- 
tic, establish the Asiatic and common primeval origin of all three, 
the remaining link of language is supplied to show the Caucasian 
attributes of the Egyptian tongue. 

6th. Historically — from the collation of the most ancient records 
with each other, corrected by the application of hieroglyphical tes- 
timony, coeval with the earliest events of which history has left us 
the annals — 

7th, and Monumentally — from the edifices still erect in Lower 
Egypt, which are more ancient than any others in the world, and 
from the vestiges in Lower Egypt of early cities, which history at- 
tests were equal to any others in antiquity — 

We aro fully justified in concluding that civilization, springing 
from Asia, introduced by Caucasians into Lower Egypt, obtained its 
earliest known developments in the lower provinces, and therefore 
accompanied a white race up the Nile, from north to south, as these 
people, the primitive Egyptians, must have ascended, and not de- 
scended that river. 

Let us now return to the chain of history. We have brought the 
children of Ham from Asia into Egypt; we have settled their des- 
cendants along the whole Nilotic valley ; we have watched the rise 
of civilization, and the formation of a general theocratic govern- 
ment ; we have seen a military chieftain seize the sceptre, andfound 
a powerful dynasty of hereditary sovereigns ; we have seen his suc- 
cessors improve cities for their residences, build pyramids for their 
tombs ; and where are we in chronological epochs ? still in very re- 
mote periods. We are only at the close of Manetho's 4th Memphite 
Dynasty, so far as hieroglyphical confirmations enable us to deduce 
plausible conjectures. 

We have now reached a point of darkness so dense, that a few 
observations will suffice to explain the difficulties of our position : 
on the one hand stands Scriptural chronology, limiting us to a given 
period, between the Flood and Abraham ; on the other, we have the 
very doubtful number of Manetho's kings and reigns. A few years 
ago no one pretended to consider Manetho's first fifteen dynasties as 
worthy of notice ; and even at the present day, there is no reason for 
accepting the number of his kings ; or the length of their reigns, 
such as have been transmitted to us by his copyists. Therefore, 
Manetho's period, from the fourth to the end of the fifteenth dynasty, 
is considered improbable by me, although on the Continent there 
are some hierologists who accept the whole of Manetho as he stands 
in the table already presented, by which the accession of Menes 
would have occurred, B. C. 5867. 

It is singular, that the monuments confirm Manetho, as will be 
seen, in a most extraordinary manner up to the 16th dynasty ; that 
the pyramida confirm his 4th dynasty ; and that the 1st king of the 
1st dynasty, Menei, is now confirmed by tablets and papyri. In 
fact, it may be contended, that, dating back from the 31st dynasty, 
as Manetho has been corroborated by the hieroglyphics on the monu- 
ments of Egypt up to the 16th dynasty ; say B. C, 2272 — his autho- 
rity must not be altogether rejected upon preceding epochs ; espe- 
cially now, that his 4th Memphite dynasty stands forth a brilliant 
constellation in the firmament of historical gloom. 

But unhappily the tomes of the high priest of On — the far-famed 
Heliopolis — have reached us in scattered fragments, which bear in- 
ternal evidence of having been mutilated by his copyists, to suit their 
own peculiar systems of cosmogony ; and while we may refuse our 
belief to the immeasurable, as well as inconsistent periods, and ex- 
traordinary number of kings for his first 15 dynasties ; yet, not ha- 
ving, in the fragments bequeathed us by Manetho's transcribers, the 
names of the kings who figured in the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 
13th, 14th and 15th dynasties, we are not able to identify with Ma- 
netho's list, the long hieroglyphical catalogue called "Unplaced 
Kings," most of whom however, are attended with circumstancial 



evidence proving their appertaining to some period before the 16th 
dynasty ; say prior to B. C, 2272 — and between that period and the 
accession of Menes. 

By " unplaced kings" are meant the great number of royal ovals 
or cartouches, containing the names of Pharaohs, the greater part of 
whom lived before the 16th dynasty ; because, from the 16th dynasty 
downward, we can adjust the monuments with Manetho's histo- 
ry, and therefore these unplaced kings must have lived before that 
period ; independently of a variety of circumstances which send each 
of them back to a previous epoch. 

We know that each of these unplaced kings "lived, moved, 
and had a being ;" and from historical and hieroglyphic testimony 
we can prove, that so many of them ruled over all Egypt, as to de- 
stroy the supposition of their being coetaneous. For instance, let us 
take the following. 



Remeran — Sun — beloved name. He is a most an- 
cient king. He is found in Karnac ; at Chenoboscion, 
on the Cosseir road — and as his titles are " Lord of 
Upper and Lower Egypt," he ruled over the whole 

country. 




Let us take another. 



Pharaoh — or, Lord of an obedient people. 



Remai — " The beloved of Phre." His titles are also 
" Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt" — but, as his name 
is found at Eilethyas, at Silsilis, on the Cosseir road, at 
Chenoboscion, at Karnac, and at the copper mines of 
Mount Sinai, he must have ruled over all Egypt. 



These Unplaced Kings may amount in number at present (for 
one or more new kings are yearly discovered,) to about 180 car- 
touches as an approximative extreme. But, making due allowance 
for possible repetition of the same kings' names in variations of car- 
touches, or otherwise ; and rejecting, as doubtful cases, many others, 
we have in hieroglyphics more than sixty unplaced kings, who 
must have lived and reigned between Menes and the 16th dynasty, 
or between Mizraim and Abraham, wherewith to fill up some por- 
tion of the blanks of history. Others will be discovered — circum 
stances will add to our knowledge of many of them ; but it is scarcely 
possible to be hoped, by the most sanguine, that we shall ever be 
able to possess the hieroglyphical names of all " the children of the 
sun," who swayed the sceptre of Menes, owing to the destruction 
of monuments in Egypt by the Hykshos, the Persians, the Greeks, 
the Romans, the Christians, the Saracens, the Turks, and the Herod 
of all destroyers, the present Mohammed Ali. 

An adequate number of Egyptian royal ovals has been found, 
however, to satisfy the impartial, that the number of 350 kings, who, 
according to profane authors, ruled over Egypt from Menes to the 
31st dynasty, B. C, 332 — is far from being a mere fable, without 
some foundation in fact; and that it is positively not an exaggeration 
in toto. I can, from my own notes and compilations, produce all 
that to the best of my belief were known up to 1842. 

There is every reasonable conjecture that the effaced 29 kings, of 
the tablet of Abydos, would, if we possessed all Manetho, be found 
to correspond to his loth dynasty ; of which kings, neither the num- 
ber, nor the names are extant in the fragments of the sacerdotal 
chronicler. The mutilated condition of the tablet itself adds to our 
difficulties. I merely note the circumstance, while the uncertainty 
compels us to throw these 29 kings among the unplaced Pharaohs 
preceding the 16th dynasty. 

We are therefore compelled to drop the veil over the Egyytian 
history from the pyramids, during an uncertain, but a long period, 
to the 16th dynasty, B. C, 2272. In this interval, temples were 
built, as we possess their remains ; tombs were prepared for millions 
of departed; quarries were worked; mines were opened and ex- 
plored ; all the arts and sciences were practiced ; religion was fos- 
tered. Egypt would seem to have been peaceful, prosperous, civil- 
ized, and happy, under a long chain of unambitious monarchs ; but 
more than this we do not know — perhaps never may. Yet the dis- 
covery of a single tablet of kings — a genealogical papyrus — a copy 
of Manetho — or the same wonderful chain of successful labors and 
extraordinary coincidences, that have hitherto attended the Cham- 
pollion school, may enable some fortunate explorer to find, and to 
open the sealed, the lest books of Hermes. 



CHAPTER SEVENTH. 
The first of my two preceding discourses was intended as a sketch 
of the conjectural and probable commencement of Egyptian colo- 
nization by the Caucasian children of Ham, the Asiatic — their pro- 
gress up the Nile, the rise of the theocracy or hierarchical government, 
down to its modification on the accession of Menei, the 1st Pharaoh 
of Egypt. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



61 



The object of the second discourse was to define the possible pe. 
nod of Menes's foundation of the Pharaonic monarchy, taking the 
year 2750 B. C, as within a few generations approximative of the 
truth. 

We then descended through the pyramidal period of Egyptian 
monuments. We touched on the difficulties of classing our " un. 
placed kings ;" and, while we allewed the doubts and conflicting 
statements of profane history, we endeavored, at the same time, to 
vindicate Manetho's claims upon our notice. 

We have seen, that some events of this period are positive, as we 
possess monuments to attest them, no less than the greatness of 
Egypt in those days : nor can we any longer tolerate the objection, 
that all is fable in history before Abraham's birth. 

We have proved, that, in the wilderness of antiquity, before the 
birth of Abraham, there are many oases, such as the pyramids of 
Egypt and Ethiopia, with other Pharaonic remains ; and, if we can- 
not trace in every case the connection between these verdant spots, 
we have established, that they are all embraced within a chronolo- 
gical circle, the lower circumference of which strikes the 16th Dy- 
nasty, while the upper rim of its imaginary orbit recedes from our 
view into the gloom of primeval epochs. 

Who, 30 years ago, could have foreseen that we should be enabled 

to do a thousandth part as much ? and who can now doubt, that every 

future year will present some new planet in the historical firmament? 

On turning to the table of dynasties, it will be observed that Ma- 

netho is met by the tablet of Abydos, at the lGth dynasty. 

Reserving the more copious elucidation of this monument to my 
future oral lectures, in the course of which I shall exhibit a large 
copy of the tablet, it is necessary at present to explain that this is a 
hieroglyphical genealogical record, wherein Ramses the 3rd — Sesos- 
tris — about B. C. 1550, has chronicled fifty-one Pharaohs, who pre- 
ceded him on the throne of Egypt. The original of this precious 
sculpture is now in the British Museum, but in a very mutilated 
condition, compared with its state 25 years ago, when it stood in the 
temple at Abydos. 

The 16th Theban dynasty of five kings is recorded in this tablet ; 
and from this dynasty downward, Egyptian history is now clearly 
defined. 

I would next solicit attention to the reduction of the " Old Chron- 
icle ;" whereby the first fifteen dynasties are comprised in the first 443 
years of a Sothic, or canicular period or cynic cycle : (I explained this 
subject in a former chapter.) Now, it is tolerably well established by the 
calculations of Champollion Figeac, that this cycle began in the Julian 
year 2782 B. C; whence, if the 16th dynasty began in the year 444th 
of this cycle, its accession would correspond to the year 2339 B. C. 

Again, as Champollion Figeac remarks, "if we add to the year 
443 of this cycle, which was the last year of the 15th dynasty — 1st, 
190 years for the duration of the reigns of the 16th dynasty ; and 2nd, 
the 178 years that, with the 6 years of the 28th dynasty, are wanting 
in the numerical details of the Old Chronicle (see Cory's Ancient 
Fragments,) to reach the sum total of 36,525 years, which the Chron- 
icle gives as the amount of years reigned, we shall attain, at an 
approximation of eleven years, the same results" that our author 
draws from other documents, to fix the invasion of the Hykslws with 
the commencement of the 17th dynasty, at the year B. C. 2082 ; and 
to establish the commencement of the 18th dynasty, at 1822 B. C. 
Considering the remoteness of the epoch, such a trifling difference as 
eleven years " needs neither defence nor attack." 

It is probable that the accession of Menes — the annual rising of 
the sacred Nile — and the astronomical relation of the Sothic Cycle 
to the same — are three events of coetaneous occurrence about the year 
2782 B. C. ; for this I refer particularly to the masterly calcula- 
tions of Champollion Figeac. 

The method by which the rise of the 16th dynasty is determined 
by Rosellini and by Champollion, is based however on a more simple 
calculation. Their several estimates for this event differ but two 
years from each other. 

At the end of each of Manetho's dynasties we have — as in the ta- 
ble — fhe sum total of the years reigned. 

Two eras, upon which chronologists coincide, are selected. One, 
the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, in the year 525 B. C. : the other, 
the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, B. C. 332. With 
each of these well known dates, the sum total of the years reigned 
by the last 16 dynasties, preceding and down to the Macedonian, must 
agree — that is, in the year 525 B. C, the 26th Saitic dynasty must 
end ; and in the year 332 the rule of the Persians must cease. 

If then, we count the years given by Manetho — as corrected by 
the monuments — for those who reigned from the beginning of the 
16th dynasty, to the end of the 31st dynasty, 

Years, 
we obtain, 1940 



To which add the years between Alexander's con- 
quest and the birth of Christ, 



Years, 
we obtain 1747 

To which add the years between Cambyses and our 

Saviour, 525 



We obtain, again, for the 16th dynasty, B. C. 



2272 



332 



The 16th dynasty began B.C. 2272 

Or, counting the years from the beginning of the 16th dynasty, to 
the end of the 26th dynasty, when Cambyses conquered Egypt, 



It will be seen, as we proceed, how admirably the monuments and 
history corroborate this date : and how perfectly it dove-tails with 
the chronology of the Bible, from Abraham downward, when we take 
up the Hebrew chronology for times succeeding Moses. And not to 
expose myself to the charge of inconsistency, I would beg leave to 
remark, that for the time between Moses and the Deluge, I follow 
the Septuagint version, as the only scale reconcilable with Egyptian 
history ; because it was in the lives and generations prior to Abra- 
ham, that the Hebrew texts of Scripture were altered, corrupted and 
curtailed by the Jews, after the advent of Christianity : whereas, for 
the period subsequent to Moses, the Hebrew text would seem to be 
more accurate than for anterior times ; and from Moses downward, 
Archbishop Usher's system of chronology will probably be found best 
adapted to Jewish history. 

On the other hand, I am not treating on Jewish, but on Egyptian 
history ; and the Egyptian chronological edifice from the 16th dynasty 
downward, in general principles, is built upon a rock. 

The monuments are silent about the Hebrews ; and it is highly 
satisfactory to be able to show, that this silence does not affect the 
authority of Scripture. It has been seen that, although the Bible is 
silent on Egypt in the times before Abraham, we have positive au- 
tocthon monumental history in that country to fill up much of the 
vacuum, and to confirm the Septuagint era of the Flood. It will by- 
and-by become evident, that, although the Egyptian records are alto- 
gether silent about the Jewish sojourn in Egypt, circumstances will 
enable us to account for this silence ; while we meet with some ex. 
traordinary coincidences confirmatory of Biblical chronology and 
history after the times of Moses, and corroborative of the computations 
of the Hebrew version from him downward. 

The reader will indulgently observe that, owing mainly to the na- 
ture of our education in America and in England, we cannot divest 
ourselves of certain associations, whenever the word Egypt is used. 
We instantly connect Egypt with Scripture and with the Hebrews ; 
and no foreign country certainly is, to the inspired writers, of such 
vast consequence as Egypt, from the time of Abraham to the fall of 
Jerusalem. But, if any of my readers had resided in Egypt as long 
as I have, they would readily perceive, that although some may not 
choose to disconnect the Jews from the Egyptians, we can certainly 
detach the Egyptians from the Jews. Egyptian local and internal 
history is as independent of Jewish history, prior to the days of Solo- 
mon — except so far as it may concern the Hebrew Exode — as is the 
history of China. America has her annals independently of England. 
Assyria rose and fell from causes known to, and predicted by, but inde- 
pendently of the Hebrew prophets ; and, in the same manner, Egypt 
has her own chronicles, her own events and her own annalists, inde- 
pendently of all connection with the Jews, whom she preceded in 
antiquity by at least ten centuries. 

As an Egyptian annalist, therefore, I shall, in my future oral lec- 
tures, unfold Egyptian history from the hieroglyphics. I shall touch 
on every event and on every nation, that concern my subject, but I 
shall treat of the Jews, as I do of any other nation with whom the 
Egyptians were brought into contact ; without twisting confirmations 
from data where none exist ; or withholding the smallest of those 
that confirm or elucidate an historical text of Scripture. 

We begin then with the 16th Theban dynasty, at B.C. 2272, on 
positive monumental data, and historical evidences ; leaving out all 
those observations which have been so often promulgated, though in 
the year 1843 they do not bear upon Egyptian history at this point. 
It has been accurately observed by Champollion Figeac, that his (and 
Rosellini's) computation of the 16th dynasty, at B. C. 2272, is rather 
more conclusive, than the feeble strictures of Syncellus upon Mane 
tho, or the explanations of Eusebius,in regard to the number of years 
— 36,525 — of the " old chronicle," which concern neither the Deluge, 
nor Abraham, nor history, nor positive chronology, since they are the 
arbitrary product of purely mythological or astronomical speculations. 

We shall find ourselves constantly bringing the dates on Egyptian 
monuments to correct or to aid history in the number of years reigned, 
by the kings of Egypt ; for, as I remarked in a former chapter, it 
was customary in all documents to date the current year from the 
king's accession to the throne. 

With respect to the number of kings who ruled from the 1st mo- 
narch of the 16th dynasty, B. C. 2272, to the close of the 31st Per 
sian dynasty, B. C. 332 — I instituted a comparison between the 
several historical lists, and find that the, 

Old Chronicle for this period, 

Manetho, according to Eusebius, 
do do Africanus, 

Canon of Syncellus, adjusted by Hales, 

and extended by myself, " " 91 

The mean between these records furnishes about 97 kings. On 
applying this to Rosellini's and Champollion's era of the 16th dynasty, 
we again obtain satisfactory results; for 



gives Kings 


95 


(I ll 


94 


<< II 


100 



62 



ANCIENT EGYPT 



The 16th dynasty is given by them at B.C. 2272 

Take away the years between the 31st dynasty and our 

Saviour's birth, 332 

there remain 1940 

which divided by 97, gives us 20 years for the average reign of each 
king; an average less by 2 J years, than by Doctor Hales and other 
eminent mathematicians is taken for the mean length of a kingly 
generation. By another comparative reduction I made of the " Old 
Chronicle," Manetho, Eratosthenes, and Syncellus's Canon, I obtained 
the accession of the 16th dynasty, at a mean within 54 years of Ro- 
sellini's calculation — so that in following the learned French or Ita- 
lian authorities, I am not only in accordance with the mass of hie. 
rologists, but acting also upon my own conviction of their accuracy, 
derived from actual investigation. 

Of these ninety-seven kings, the monuments will enable us to pro- 
duce about seventy-five in hieroglyphics ; while, for the absence of 
the rest, we have to accuse the spoiler ; and each unfound king will 
in his place be readily accounted for. Their non-appearance in hie- 
roglyphics, however, does not in the least affect the mode or the accu- 
racy of these computations for the 10th dynasty. 

It is scarcely necessary, after my former remarks on Herodotus 
and Diodorus, to repeat, that in matters of Egyptian chronology, it is 
but lost time to consult them. Their details of an individual king's 
acts are sometimes correct and often useful, but their lists are tissues 
of anachronisms irreconcilable with the monuments, with other 
chronicles, or with themselves. Most of the confusion in Egyptian 
history has arisen from the misconceptions and misrepresentations of 
these two Greeks, who wrote on subjects they neither did nor could 
know much about. 

THE 16th DYNASTY OF THEBANS, 

Consisting of five Pharaohs, who reigned together 190 years, com- 
menced B. C. 2272, and ended B. C. 2082. 

See tablet of Abydos, in my lecture room, Nos. 30, 31, 32, 33, 34. 
It will be observed that these ovals are in the tablet obliterated, but 
Nos. 33 and 34 are supplied by the genealogical succession of Beni- 
hassan. 

In a former chapter I explained, that each Pharaoh, after those of 
the earlier dynasties, had two ovals or cartouches inclosing his names ; 
one of which, called the prenomen, contained his distinguishing title, 
and is generally symbolic — the other, called his nomen, contained 
his proper name, which in most cases is altogether phonetic. It is 
by his prenomen that the Pharaoh is generally determined on a tablet. 

When once the position of a prenomen in relation to other pre- 
nomina, is established by a genealogical tablet, it is generally easy 
to find oi i some other monument a hieroglyphical legend, wherein 
the preno-nen is connected with its nomen or proper name. For 
instance, we find No. 33 in the tablet of Abydos effaced ; but still, 
the former existence of an owner for it, is indisputable ; and we 
count him for a Pharaoh, even without knowing his names. 

The genealogical succession of Beni-hassan (which is another 
record) gives us 




Sun offered to the world. 



as the title or prenomen of a king — but we are still ignorant of this 
king's proper name. Let us seek for a monumant, whereon we can 
find this prenomen associated with its corresponding nomen. We 
take the granite obelisk (vide obelisk in chapter third,) that still 
marks the site of Heliopolis. Here we find this prenomen (No. 33 
of tablets Abydos and Beni-hassan) coupled with this nomen, 



Son of the Sun. 



OSoRTaSeN. 



Sun offered to the world — Osortasen — 
and he is our Osortasen the 1st — 4th king 
, of 16th dynasty. 
He was, up to 1837, the earliest king identified on the tablet of 
Abydos; but an accident happily acquainted us with his predecessor, 
No. 32, who is also an obliterated Pharaoh. A broken statue of a 
tilting human figure of dark red granite, was in the possession of a 
gentleman at Rome. Of this statue, the lower portion, consisting 
only of the legs and the chair, was preserved. It was known to be 




Egyptian, but was not considered of any importance by its proprietor 
Chance brought the learned hierologists, Dr. Lepsius and Chevalier 
Baron Bunsen, in the. way of this block; and on a hieroglyphical 
legend down its side, they read " The King, Sun offered to the 
World (the %rrenomen oval of Osortasen 1st) giver of eternal life, 
has made a durable construction for his father, Pharaoh, Sun of 
Guardianship ; has made a statue in red granite to him, who rendered 
him vivifier for ever." 

On the other side of the statue, a legend the same in substance is 
repeated ; but in this legend the nomen oval is given ; and thus we 
know that the father of (No. 33 of tablet of Abydos, or Osortasen 1st,) 
was "the sun of guardianship," Aian or Oan. One might be tempted 
to consider him a Johannes, a Hanna, or a John, so nearly does the 
phonetic value approach the eastern sound of this familiar name. 

Thus, then, we have gone back one king more, and have only 
two blanks to fill in the 16th dynasty ; for No. 34, though obliterated 
on the tablet of Abydos, is supplied from Beni-hassan ; prenomen, 
Sun perfect in justice ; and nomen Amenemhe ; whom we call 
Amenemhe 1st. 

I have thought it would be satisfactory to the reader, to expound 
the curious but practical process by which Egyptian hieroglyphics 
are read, and the chronology determined. Henceforward we shall 
find the successions regular through the tablets, and where they end, 
we can, in most cases, produce other equally positive proofs from 
other sources. 

Of the first Osortasen we possess many very interesting records, 
enlightening us on events unknown to, and unchronicled by any 
ancient writers ; and it is the pride of modern hierology of the last 
fifteen years, to have brought to light some annals of a monarch, 
whose existence and name were omitted by all historians ; and yet, 
whose deeds place him among the greatest of kings. It is from le- 
gends coeval with him that we glean this information ; and when 
we reflect that, inhis day, B.C. 2088, Abraham, by the Hebrew ver- 
sion, was not born ; it will be seen how intensely interesting are 
these resuscitations. 

The monuments of Osortasen first begin in Nubia, near the se. 
cond Cataract, where he erected a temple ; and a tablet, exhumed 
from this spot by the French and Tuscan commissions, and now at 
Florence, records his victories over the Lybians, and over ten Afr* 
can nations, some of whom must be sought for toward the now-my*' 
terious sources of the Nile. Another edifice was left by him at Hi 
eraconpolis above Eilethyas, the last stone of which was carried oft 
for lime about 1836. He built the sanctuary of the temple at Kar- 
nac, where an enormous statue once stood representing this king, 
cut out of crystallized sulphate of lime ! One of his generals lay 
buriod in a tomb at Beni-hassan. An obelisk in the Fayoom, and 
the well known obelisk still erect at Heliopolis, record his name and 
titles. Scattered fragments bearing his legend are found in the win- 
dow-sills of mosques and thresholds of doors at Cairo, which Ma. 
hommedan desecration has taken from Memphis and Heliopolis. 

Excavations at Memphis and Abydos have brought to light Stelse 
with his names ; and in the museums of Europe there are many 
relics of Osortasen. We possess monuments which bear the several 
dates of the 9th, 13th, 17th, 25th, 42nd, 43rd, and 44th years of his 
reign. 

The summary of deductions to be drawn from these facts is, that 
Osortasen was a great and wise monarch, who ruled the land of 
Egypt with much regard to the welfare of his subjects ; by whom 
Ms memory was revered in all after times. His dominion extended 
into Ethiopia and Nigritia. He repressed the nomads of the Lybian 
desert. It may be presumed that, toward the eastward, his Asiatic 
frontier was limited to the Suez Isthmus, and Mount Sinai peninsula. 
In his reign religion was carefully protected ; and the arts of paint- 
ing and sculpture reached a bold purity of style, unsurpassed in exe- 
cution even by the more florid characteristics of later times. Every 
art and every science known to the Egyptians were fully developed 
in his day. 

The style of architecture was grand and chaste ; while the columns 
now termed Doric, and attributed to the Greeks, were in common 
use in this reign, which precedes the Dorians by a thousand years. 
The arch, both round and pointed, with its perfect keystone, in brick 
and in stone, was well known to the Egyptians long before this 
period ; so that the untenable assertion, that the most ancient arch is 
that of the Cloaca Magna at Rome, falls to the ground. 

In architecture, as in everything else, the Greeks and the Romans 
obtained their knowledge from their original sources in Egypt, where 
still existing ruins attest priority of invention 1000 years before 
Greece, and 1500 years before Rome. These topics are now beyond 
dispute, and may be found in the pages of the Champollion school. 
Until the last few years they were utterly unknown in history. 

It seems possible, however, that the habits of good order, agricul- 
tural welfare, civilization, and social refinement, had rendered the 
then peaceful inhabitants of the valley of the Nile unambitious of 
foreign extension. It would appear, as if content with repressing tho 
inroads of the southern and western nations, they thought more of 
preserving and improving the goods accruing to them from peaceful 
institutions, than of increasing their wealth by military prowess or 
territorial extension. 

This is to be inferred from the fierce visitation, which Providence 
had then in store for Egypt, that befel in the next reign. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



63 



Although, of course, nothhe slightest record of the event is to be 
found in the hieroglyphics, modern chronologists consider the visit of 
Abraham to have taken place in this or the preceding reign. All 
seem to agree that the patriarch sought refuge from the famine, at 
that time in Canaan, amid the well-stored granaries of Egypt, during the 
16th dynasty. I confess, that there are many objections to this view 
arising from an infinitude of circumstances. The main difficulties 
proceed from the diversity of computation of Scriptural chronology ; 
and the doubt as to the epoch of Abraham within 500 years. For 
Egyptian chronology, we have so many land-marks, that now-a-days 
the hierologist can err but little in his date for the 16th dynasty ; and 
therefore we are compelled to adapt the Biblical chronology to the 
monuments. This can be done satisfactorily, when we select those 
Biblical authorities that best accord with hieroglyphic history. 

My oral lectures will touch on the several computations of Cham- 
pollion, Rosellini and Wilkinson. 

In any case, if Abraham visited Egypt during this dynasty, he was 
received with hospitality and kindness ; although he made use of 
a subterfuge, that, to say the least, was reprehensible. 

The Pharaoh of Egypt behaved to hiin with manly generosity, and 
dismissed him and all his people " rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold." 
This says volumes for the land styled the "region of purity and just- 
ice" in those most remote periods. Not only did Abraham.retain all 
his wealth, but he was allowed to take it, and to go his way across 
the desert toward Mamre near Hebron, unmolested, and enriched 
with presents. We may infer that Egypt was great and wealthy, 
when cattle, silver, and gold did not tempt the inhabitants to violate 
the rights of hospitality. Nor can Egyptian forbearance be attri- 
buted to any other feeling than that of justice to the stranger ; as 
Abraham's armed force [his " trained servants"] many years after, 
did not exceed 318 men ; whereas, the Egyptians possessed regular 
armies, vast cities ; and some centuries previously, had devoted 
100,000 men solely to erect one pyramidal tomb. 

Abraham doubtless increased his stock in Egypt, and likewise 
hired Egyptian attendants ; for his handmaid Hagar was an Egyptian 
female : their son Ishmael,* was therefore half Egyptian in blood ; 
and to evince his attachment to his maternal origin, this son also 
espoused an Egyptian, when he settled in the wilderness of Paran. 

These circumstances, though in themselves trifling, go far in sup- 
port of the Asiatic origin and Caucasian race of the early Egyptians; 
who, while they do not appear to have looked upon Abraham as a 
Gentile, were by him considered worthy of his family. This would 
probably not have been the case, had the Egyptians been Africans. 
There is in fact, every Scriptural reason to believe, that the early 
Egyptians and Abraham's family were on the most friendly footing. 

The relation between Abraham and the Pharaoh of Egypt, was 
such as between a Be'dawee Sheykh and Mahommed Ali of the 
present times. The obligation was exclusively on the side of the 
Hebrew patriarch ; who, apart from his personal merits, as a vene- 
rable and pious man — a distinguished guest of the Egyptians — must, 
in other points of comparison to the monarch, whose sway extended 
1500 miles along the Nile, have been quite insignificant. 

It is on these grounds, that the silence of Egyptian Annals in re- 
spect to Abraham is readily explained. 

To proceed with Egyptian history — the successor to Osortasen the 
1st, was Amenemhe 1st ; but few of his remains have come down 
to us, owing to the catastrophe that put an end to his life and reign ; 
no less than to the happiness of Egypt for a period of 260 years. 
Let us take up Manetho preserved to us by the Jewish historian Jose- 
phus, after observing that " Amenemhe 1st," agrees chronologically 
with Timaus — Choncharis. 

Fragments of Manetho's history ; preserved by Josephus in his 
defence of the Jews against Apion, (extracted from Cory's " Ancient 
Fragments.") 

MANETHO. 



OF THE SHEPHERD KINGS. 

We had formerly a king whose name was Timaus. In his time it came 
to pass, I know not how, that God was displeased with us : and there came 
up from the East in a strange manner men of an ignoble race, who had the 
confidence to invade our country, and easily subdued it by their power with- 
out a battle. And when they had our rulers in their hands, they burnt our 
cities, and demolished the temples of the gods, and inflicted every kind of 
barbarity upon the inhabitants, slaying some, and reducing the wives and 
children of others to a state of slavery. At length they made one of them- 
selves king, whose name was Salatis : he lived at Memphis, and rendered 
both the upper and lower regions of Egypt tributary, and stationed garrisons 
in places which were best adapted for that purpose. Cut he directed his 
attention principally to the security of the eastern frontier; for he regarded 
with suspicion the increasing power of the Assyrians, who he foresaw would 
one day undertake an invasion of the kingdom. And observing in the Saite 
nome, upon the east of the Bubastite channel, a city which from some an- 
cient theological reference was called Avaris : and finding it admirably 
adapted to his purpose, he rebuilt it, and strongly fbrtified it with walls, and 
garrisoned it with a force of two hundred and fifty thousand men completely 
armed. To this city Salalis repaired in summer time, to collect his tribute, 
and pay his troops, and to exercise his soldiers in order to strike terror into 
foreigners. 



* Ishmael is undoubtedly the father of a large proportion of the Arabs; but the 
Arabian peninsgla must have been numerously inhabited even in bis day, by Hie de 
scencants of Joktan &c. Every circumstance confirms the intimate relations that in 
the remotest times exisW between Egypt and Arabia. 



And Salatis died after a reign of nineteen years : after him reigned another 
king, who was called Beon,* forty-four yeais: and he was succeeded by 
Apachnas who reigne I thirly-six years ar.d seven months : after him reigned 
Apophis sixty-one years, and Ianias fifty years and one nSiith. After all 
these reigned Assis forty-nine years and two months. These six were the 
first rulers among them, and during the whole period of their dynasty, they 
made war upon the Egyptians with thehope of exterminating the whole race. 
All this nation was styled Hycsos, that is the Shepherd Kings ; for the first 
syllable, Hyc, in the sacred dialect, denotes a king, and Sos signifies a 
shepherd, but this only according to the vulgar tongue ; and of these is com- 
pounded the term Hycsos : some say they were Arabians. This people 
who were thus denominated Shepherd Kings, and their descendants retained 
possession of Egypt during the period of five hundred and eleven years. 

After these things he relates that the kings of Thebais and of the other pro 
vinces of Egypt, made an insurrection against the Shepherds, and that a 
long and mighty war was carried on between them, till the Shepherds were 
overcome by a king whose name, was Alisphragmuthosis, and they were by 
him driven out of the other parts of Egypt, and hemmed up in a place con- 
taining about ten thousand acres, which was called Avaris. All this tract 
(says Manetho) the Shepherds surrounded with a vast and strong wall, that 
they might retain all their property and their prey within a hold of strength. 
And Thummosis, the son of Alisphragmuthosis, endeavored to force them 
by a siege, and beleagured the place with a body of four hundred and eighty 
thousand men ; but at the moment he despaired of reducing them by siege, 
they agreed to a capitulation, that they would leave Egypt, and should be 
permitted to go out without molestation wheresoever they pleased. And, 
according to this stipulation, they departed from Egypt with all their fami- 
lies and effects, in number not less than two hundred and forty thousand, and 
bent their way through the desert toward Syria. But as they stood in fear 
of the Assyrians, who had then dominion over Asia, they built a city in that 
country which is now called Judaea, of sufficient size to contain this multi- 
tude of men, and named it Jerusalem. 

(In another book of the Egyptian histories Manetho says) That this 
people, who are here called Shepherds, in their sacred books were also styled 
Captives, t 

After the departure of this nation of Shepherds to Jerusalem, Tcthmosis, 
the king of Egypt who drove them out, reigned twenty-five years ana four 
months, and then died : after him his son Chebron took the government into 
his hands for thirteen years ; after him reigned Amenophis for twenty years 
and seven months: then his sister Amesses twenty-one years and nine 
months : she was succeeded by Menhres, who reigned twelve years and nine 
months: after him Mephramuthosis twenty-five years and ten months : then 
Thmosis reigned nine years and eight months; after whom Amenophis 
thirty years and ten months; then Orus thirty-six years and five months : 
then his daughter Acenchres twelve years and one month ; afterwards her 
brother Rathotis nine ; then Acencheres twelve years and five months ; 
another Acencheres twelve years and three months ; after him Armais four 
years and one month ; after him reigned Ramesses one year and four monihs ; 
then Armesses the son of Miammous sixty- six years and two months ; after 
him Amenophis nineteen years and six months ; and he was succeeded by 
Sethosis and Ramesses. he maintained an army of cavalry and a naval force. 
This king (Sethosk-) appointed his brother Armais his viceroy over 
Egypt : he also invested him with all the authority of a king, with only three 
restrictions; that he should Dot wear the diadem, nor interfere with the queen, 
the mother of his children, nor abuse the royal concubines. Sethosis then 
made an expedition against Cyprus and Phoenicia, and waged war with the 
Assyrians ind Medes ; and he subdued them all, some by force of arms, and 
others without a battle, by the mere terror of his power. And being elated 
with his success, he advanced still more confidently, and overthrew the 
cities, and subdued the countries of the East. 

But Armais, who was left in Egypt, took advantage of the opperlunit}', and 
fearlessly perpetrated all those acts which his brother had enjoined him not 
to commit : he violated the queen, and continued an unrestrained intercourse 
with the concubines ; and at the persuasion of his friends he assumed the 
diadem, and openly opposed his brother. 

But the ruler over the priests of Egypt by letters sent an account to 
Sethosis, and informed him of what had happened, and how his brother had 
set himself up in opposition to his power. Upon this Sethosis immediately 
returned to Pelusium, and recovered his kingdom. The country of Egypt 
took ils name from Sethosis, who was called also iEgyplus, as was his 
brother Armais known by the name of Danaus. — Joseph, contr. App, lib. I, 
c. 14, 15. 

OF THE ISRAELITES. 

This king (Amenophis) was desirous of beholding the gods, as Orus, one 
of his predecessors in the kingdom, had seen them. And he communicated 
his desire to a priest of the same name with himself, Amenophis, the son of 
Papis, who seemed to partake of the divine nature, both in his wisdom and 
knowledge of futurity ; and Amenophis returned him answer, that it was in 
his power to behold the gods, if he would cleanse the whole couulry of the 
lepers and other unclean persons that abounded in it. 

Well pleased with this information, the king gathered together out of 
Egypt all that labored under any defect in body, to the amount of eighty 
thousand, and sent them to the quarries, which are situated on the east side 
of the Nile, that they might work in them and be separated firm the rest of 
the Egyptians. And (he says) there were among them some learned priests 
who were affected with leprosy. And Amenophis the wise man and prophet, 
fearful least the vengeance of the gods should fall both on himself and on the 
king, if it should appear that violence had been offered them, added this also 
in a prophetic spirit — that certain people would come to the assistance of 
these unclean persons, and would subdue Egypt, and hold it in possession 
for thirteen years. These tidings however he dared not to communicate to 
the king, but left in writing what should come to pass, and destroyed himself, 
at which the king was fearfully distressed. 

(After which he writes thus, word for word :) When those that were sent 
to work in the quarries had continued for some time in that miserable state, 
the king was petitioned to set apart for their habitation and prelection the city 



* Bryant— vol. iv., p. 4G1— gives a curious note about tin's Bern ; which rending, he 
says, is a blunder of ancient transcription. There was a second king after Salatis; 
but, as the chroniclers could not make out his name, they wroto him down as B. arou 
— " the second king is anonymous !" 

t The names of the Ifvkslios kings have not been found in hicroglyuhio There are 
two or three ovals, among I lie " unplaced kings,' 1 which present ?o'Vi: . imi'v itier ; Mich 
ns Asis, AsBA, which hnvc leen taken for Jtsttk— Pan Un JJpo^fUi ; 'mi, 1 .-«Jbt the 
resemblance. Ohampollion Figenc mentions n hieratic jiapi/rus. of the Sesor«^9 
period, which he considers to contain the name oiJlpophis. 



b4 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



of Avaris, which had been left vacant by the Shepherds; and he granted 
them their desire: now this city, according to the theology above, is a 
Typhonian city. 

But when they had taken possession of the city, and found it well adapted 
for a revolt, they appointed for themselves a ruler from among the priests of 
Heliopolis, one whose name was Osarsiph, and they bound themselves by 
oath that they would be obedient. Osarsiph then, in the first place enacted t 
law, that they should neither worship the gods, nor abstain from any of those 
sacred animals which the Egyptians hold in veneration, but sacrifice and 
slay them all ; and that they should connect themselves with none but such 
as were of that confederacy. When he had made such laws as these, and 
many others of a tendency directly in opposition to the customs of the 
Egyptians, he gave orders that they should employ the multitude of hands in 
rebuilding the walls about the city, and hold themselves in readiness for war 
with Amenophis the king. He then took into his counsels some others of 
the priests and unclean persons : and sent embassadors to the city called 
Jerusalem, to those Shepherds who had been expelled by Tethmosis ; and 
he informed them of the position of their affairs, and requested them to 
come up unanimously to his assistance in this war with Egypt. He also 
promised in the first place to reinstate them in their ancient city and country 
Avaris, and provide a plentiful maintenance for their host, and fight for them 
as occasion might require ; and assured them that he would easily reduce 
the country under their dominion. The Shepherds received this message 
with the greatest joy, and quickly mustered to the number of two hundred 
thousand men, and came up to Avaris. 

Now Amenophis the king of Egypt, when he was informed of their inva- 
sion, was in great" consternation, remembering the prophecy of Amenophis, 
the son of Psipis. And he assembled the armies of the Egyptians, and hav- 
ing consulted with the leaders, he commanded the sacred animals to be 
brought to him, especially those which were held in more particular venera- 
tion in the temples, and he forthwith charged the priests to conceal the images 
of their gods with the utmost care. Moreover he placed his son Sethos, who 
was also called Ramesses from his father Rampses, being then but five years 
old, under the protection of a faithful adherent; and marched with the rest 
of the Egyptians being three hundred thousand warriors, against the enemy, 
who advanced to meet him ; but he did not attack them, thinking it would be 
to wage war against the gods, but returned, and came again to Memphis, 
where he took Apis and the other sacred animals he had sent for, and re- 
treated immediately into Ethiopia together with all his army, and all the 
multitude of the Egyptians; for the king of Ethiopia was under obligations 
to him. He wss therefore kindly received by the king, who took care of all 
the multitud >. that was with him, while the country supplied what was ne- 
cessary for their subsistence. He also allotted to him cities and villages 
during his exile, which was to continue from its beginning during the pre- 
destined thirteen years. Moreover he pitched a camp for an Ethiopian 
army upon the borders of Egypt, as a protection to king Amenophis. 

In the meantime, while such was the state of things in Ethiopia, the 
people of Jerusalem, who had come down with the unclean of the Egyptians, 
treated the inhabitants with sucl barbarity, that those who witnessed their 
impieties believed that their joint sway was more execrable than that which 
the Shepherds had formerly exercised alone. For they not only set fire to 
the cities and villages, but committed every kind of sacrilege, and destreyed 
the images of the gods, and roasted and fed upon those sacred animals that 
were worshipped ; and having compelled the priests and prophets to kill and 
sacrifice them, they cast them naked out of the country. It is said also that 
the priest, who ordained their polity and laws, was by birth of Heliopolis, 
and his name Osarsiph, from Osiris the god of Heliopolis ; but that when he 
went over to these people his name was changed, and he was called Moyses. 
— Joseph, contr. App. lib. I. c. 26. 

OF THE SHEPHERDS AND ISRAELITES. 
(Manetho again says:) After this Amenophis returned from Ethiopia 
with a great force, and Rampses also, his son, with other forces, and en- 
countering the Shepherds and the unclean people, they defeated them and 
slew multitudes of them, and pursued them to the bounds of Syria. — Joseph, 
contr. App. lib. I. c. 27. 

Having now laid before the reader all the preliminary matter, ne- 
cessary to the clear comprehension of Egyptian paleography, from the 
remotest times to the accession of the 16th dynasty of Diospolitans, 
I have reached the boundary proposed in the publication of the pre- 
sent chapters. 

In my future oral Lectures all remaining subjects, that experience 
may prove to be interesting to the public, will be progressively de- 
veloped : and to render the chronological portion intelligible, I 
subjoin a 

GENERAL TABLE 

OF THE LAST SIXTEEN DYNASTIES OF THE KINGS OF EGYPT, 

ACCORDING TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS : 
Being an Abstract of Professor Roskllini's Chronology, with some later emenda- 
tions of Dr. Leem ans , and others. 



XVI. DYNASTY OF FIVE THEBAN KINGS. 









S-Si 


6£<D 










s«s 


«S| 


Names of the Kings ac- 


Names of tfle Kings ac* 


c£j 


Years 


fe £ c 


£ Sg 


cording to the original 


cording to Ancient 
Writers. 






£52 




Monuments. 


1" 


Christ. 


SJ3~ 








!* 




15 5= 


o 










1 


2 


3 


4 


5" 


B.C. 


1 


T 






> 140 


2272 


2 


TT 








3 


III. 


AlAN. 






2132 


4 


IV. 


OSORTASEN I. 


Amesses, Amosis. 


44 


2186 


b 


V. 


Amenemhe I. 


Timaus, Concharis. 


6 


2082 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years 



190 



XVII. DYNASTY OF SIX SHEPHERD KINGS, 

Or Hykshos in Lower Egypt. 



I. 

II. 
III. 

IV. 
V. 

VI. 



Salatis. 

B. Anon ? 

Apachnas. 

Apophis. 

Ianias. 

Aseth. 



19 

44 

36M7 
61 

50 1 
49 2 



B.C. 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years 259 " 10 
LEGITIMATE XVII. DYNASTY OF SIX THEBAN KINGS, 

Who ruled over the Upper Provinces of Egypt, contemporarily with the Hykshos, who 
possessed the Lower. 



1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


B.C. 


6 


1. 


Amenemhe II.* 




28 


2082 


7 


II. 


Osortasen II. 








8 


III. 


OSORTASEN III. 




14 




9 


IV. 


Amenemhe III. 




44 




10 


V. 


" Sol vocatus in justi- 










tia." 






11 


VI.' 


Aaiimes, Thothmosis. 


Misphragmuthosis. 


22 


1822 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years 260 



THE XVIIIth DYNASTY OF 17 THEBAN KINGS, 
Occupied the Pharaonic throne during the most brilliant and impoi 
tant period of Egyptian history. The reestablishment of supreme 
power on the expulsion of the Hykshos ; the. erection of the most 
magnificent edifices ; the conquests in Africa far into Nigritia, in 
Asia Minor to Cholcis on the Euxine, and through Central Asia into 
Hindostan ; with the sojourn and Exodus of the Israelites, combine 
to render this portion of the page of Nilotic history teeming with 
interest. Four parallel hieroglyphical lists exist to confirm and cor- 
rect the fragments of Manetho, viz. : the Tablet of Abydos, the Pro. 
cession of the Bamsessium, the Procession of Medeenet-Hdboo, and 
the Tomb of Gurnah. 



1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


B. C. 


12 


I. 


Amunoph I. 


Amosis, Thetmosis. 


26M4 


1822 


13 


II. 


Thothmes I. 


Chebron. 


13 




1796 


14 


III. 


Thothmes II. 


Amenophis. 


20 




1783 


15 


IV. 


Amense, queen, 


Amenses. ") 








16 
17 




Thothmes III. 
Amenemhe IV. 


1 successive hus- ( 
> bands of queen j 
S Amense. J 


21 


9 


1762 


18 


V. 


Thothmes IV.t 


Mephres, Mccris. 


12 


9 


1740 


19 


VI. 


Amunoph II. 


Mephrathutmosis. 


-25 


10 


1727 


20 


VIT. 


Thothmes V. 


Tmosis. 


9 


8 


1702 


21 


VIII. 


Amunoph III. 


Amenophis, Memnon 


30 


10 


1692 


22 


IX. 


H&R, 


Horus. 


36 


5 


1661 


23 


X. 


Tmauhot, queen, 


Achenkeres. 


12 


1 


1625 


24 


XI. 


Ramses I. 


Rathotis, Athoris. 


9 




1613 


25 


XTI. 


Menephtha I. 


two Akencheres. 


:24 


8 


1604 


26 


XIII. 


Ramses II. 


Armais, Armesses. 
C Ramses, Sesos- 1 


14 




1579 


27 


XIV. 


Ramses III. 


•? tris, Sesoosis, } 
I Osymandias. ' 


66 


2 


1565 


28 


XV. 


Menephtha II. 


Armessis, Miammun. 


3 




1499 


29 


XVI. 


Menephtha III. 


Amenophis. i 












Siphthah and 


> 


19 


U 


1496 


30 




Taosra. 


) 








31 


XVII. 


Remerri, Uerri. 




2 


5 


1476 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years 348 



XIX. DYNASTY OF SIX THEBAN KINGS. 



1 


2 


32 


I. 


33 


II. 


34 


III. 


35 


IV. 


36 


V. 


37 


VI. 



Ramses IV. 
Ramses V. 
Ramses VI. 
Ramses VII. 
Ramses VIII. 
Ramses IX. 



Sethos- iEgyptus. 
Rapsaches, Rampses. 
Ammenephthes. 
Rameses. 

Ammenemes. [teus. 
Thuoris, Polibius, Pro- 



55 



B.C. 



1474 



1280 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years 194 



* The objection to Roskllini's and Champollion Figeac's arrangement of the 
Shepherd Kings, propounded by the erudite Sir J. G. Wilkinson (in "Manners and 
Customs," vol. 1st, page 45) which is based on the " Tablet of Victories" of this king, 
brought by Mr. Burton from Wadee Gasobs, does not appear to be conclusive : for 
apart from the reading of the name of Fount, as the territorial designation of this con- 
quered nation, in which I cannot agree ; there is not only no absolute necessity to con- 
sider these Fount to be a tribe at that moment inhabiting Asia : but, associated as they 
are in Sir J. G. Wilkinson's copy of the procession of nations tributary to Thotmes4th, 
( W— vol.1, pi. 62. fig. 5, and pi. IV., 1st line) no less than in Mr. Hoskins's colored cojv. 
of the same subject, with tribes and productions exclusively African, they are evident./ 
a Caucasian family settled in some part of northeastern Africa. They may be Uppet 
Lybians especially if their name will bear the reading of FotiK-t-Kah (?) Nor do Ro- 
sellini orChompollion reler to the objection ; perhaps, however, inconsequence ofth« 
absence of this entire subject in the French and Tuscan works. 

t In a preceding chapter, I explained, that this arrangement is liable to modification, 
if the tablet referred to be of the 42nd year of Thothmes 4th— Moeris. . 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



65 





XX. 


DYNASTY OF TWELVE THEBAN KINGS. 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


B. C. 


38 
39 
40 
41 
42 
43 


I. 

II. 
III. 
IV. 

V. 
VI. 

X. 

XL 

XII. 


Ramses X. 
Ramses XL 
Ramses XII. 
Amenemes 
Ramses XIII. 
Ramses XIV. 


at least, 
at least. 


4 
33 


1280 


















44 

45 
46 


Ramses XV. 

Amensi-Hrai-Hor. 

Phisham. 


.,..,. 


1102 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years 178 



XXI. DYNASTY OF SEVEN TANITE KINGS. 



1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


B. C. 


47 

48 


I. 
II. 


Manduftep ? 
Aasen ?* 


Smendis. 

Psusennes I. 

Nophercheres. 

Amenophthis. 

Osorchor. 

Psinaches. 

Psusennes II. 


26 
46 • 

4 

9 

6 

9 
30 


1102 
1076 
1030 








1026 








1017 




VI 




1011 








1002 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years 130 



XXII. DYNASTY OF NINE BUBASTITE KINGS. 



1 


2 


49 


I. 


50 


II. 


51 


III. 


52 


IV. 


53 


V. 


54 


VI. 


55 


VII. 


56 


VIII. 


57 


IX. 



Sheshonk I. 

OSORKON I. 

Sheshonk II. 

OSORKON II 

Sheshonk III. 
Takelloth I. 

OSORKON III. 

Takelloth II. 

OSORKON IV. 



Shishak, Sesonchis 
Osoroth, Osorthon. 



Takellothis. 



21 
15 

29 



25 



B.C. 



972 
951 
936 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years 120 



XXIII. DYNASTY OF FOUR TANITE KINGS. 



I 

II 
III 
IV 



Petubastes. 
Osorcho. 
Psammus. 
Zet. 



5 


B.C. 


40 


852 


8 


812 


10 


804 


31 


794 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years 89 



XXIV. DYNASTY OF ONE SAITIC KING. 



B.C. 



Bonchoris, Bocchoris,| 44 | 763 



XXV. DYNASTY OF THREE ETHIOPIAN KINGS. 



57 

58 
59 



I.I Shjtbak. 

II.I Shabatok 

III. I Tahraka. 



Sabbacon, Sabaco. | 12 
Sevechus, Sethon, Sua\ 12 
Tarakus, Tarhaka. 20 



B.C. 



719 
707 
695 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years 44 



XXVI. DYNASTY OF NINE SAITIC KINGS. 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years, 150 6 



XXVII. DYNASTY OF EIGHT PERSIAN KINGS. 



I. 

II, 
III, 
IV, 

V, 

VI 
VII 
VIII 



Kambeth. 



Ntariush. 

Khsheersha. 

Artksheersha. 



Cambyses. 
The Magians. 
Darius, Hytaspea 
Xerxes, I. 
Artaxerxes, 
manus. 
Xerxes, II. 
Sogdianus. 
Darius-Nothus. 



Longi. 



3 

M. 7 
36 
21 
40 



19 



B. C. 



525 
522 

485 
464 

424 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years 120 4 



XXVIII. DYNASTY OF ONE SAITIC KING. 



1 


2 | 3 


4 


5 


B.C. 




I. 




Stephinatea. 

Nerepsus. 

Nechao, 1 

Psammetichus. 

Necho. 

Psammuthis, Psan- 
mus. 

Vaphrea, Apnea, Ho- 
phra. 

Amosia, Amasis. 

Psammenitua. 


7 

6 

8 
45 

6 
15 

19 

44 
M. 6 


675 




II. 




668 




III. 




662 


60 
61 
62 

63 

64 
65 


IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 
X. 


Psametik I. 
Neko II. 
Psametik II. 

Hophra Bemesto. 

Aahmeb. 
Psametik III. 


654 
609 
603 

588 

569 



1 

70 



I. Hor,-nasht-Hbai. 



Amyirtheua. 



I B.C. 
6 404 



XXIX. DYNASTY OF FIVE MENDESIAN KINGS. 



71 

72 
73 
74 



I. 

II. 
III. 
IV. 

V. 



Nophrophth. 
Hakor. 

Psimaut. 
Naifnot ? 



Nepherites. 

Achoris. 

Psammuthis. 

Anapherites. 

Muthis. 



6 

13 

1 

M.4 
1 



B.C. 



398 
392 
379 

378 



The entire Dynasty reigned — years 21 4 



XXX. DYNASTY OF THREE SEBENNITIC KINGS. 



75 



I 

II 
III 



Nashtanebf. 



Nectanebo I. 

Theos Tachoe. 

Nectanebo II. 

The entire Dynasty reigned, years, 



5 


B.C. 


18 


377 


2 


359 


18 


3-57 



38 



XXXI. DYNASTY OF THREE PERSIAN KINGS. 



I. 
II. 
Ill, 



Artaxerxes, Ochus. j2 

Arses, Arsos. 3 ? 

Darius III.Codomanus|3? 

The entire Dynasty reigned — years 8 ? 



|!L£ 
339 
337 



332 



Conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great. B. C. 332. 



List of the Ptolemaic Kings of Egypt, successors to Alexander 
the Great, whose names have been inscribed in Hieroglyphics on 
Egyptian monuments. 



No. 



NAMES OF PTOLEMIES. 



* I consider Mahduftkp. andAxssN to be "unplaced kinei", belonging to Droaatien 
prior fo the l6tb. 



II, 



III. 



IV. 



VI 



VII. 



VIII 
IX 



XL 

XII. 



Philip Arrid^us, brother of Alexander, 
Alexander, son of Alexander, 
Ptolemy, son of Lagus, Soter, 

Berenice, his 4th wife, reckoned 
in Ptolemy's reign, 
Ptolemy Philadelphia, his son, 

Arsinoe, daughter of Lysimachus, 
Arsinoe, widow of Lysimachus 1 , 
Ptolemy-Evergetes I. 

Berenice, of Cyrene, 
Ptolemy-Philopator, 

Arsinoe, his sister, 
Ptolemy-Epiphanes, 

Cleopatra, of Syria, 
Ptolemy-Philometor, 

Cleopatra, his sister, 
Ptolemy-Evergetes II. Physcon, Cach- 
ergetes. 
Cleopatra, widow of Philometor, 
Cleopatra, Cocce, 
Ptolemy Soter II, Lathyrus, 
Ptolemy Alexander I, Parisactus, 

Berenice or Cleopatra, his 

daughter 
Ptolemy Alexander II., 
Ptolemy — New Dionisius, Auletes, 
Berenice, his daughter, 
again PTOLEMY-AuZetes, 
Cleopatra, daughter of Auletes, 
Cleopatra, and her son Cjesarion, 

The House of Lagus reigned years .... 



Years 
of 

each 
Reign. 



Years 
before 
Christ. 



7 
12 
20 

39 
38 



25 
17 
24 
35 

29 



18 

18 



8 

16 

2 

3 

8 
14 



323 

316 

304 



284 

246 
221 
204 
180 
140 

117 



81 
73 
57 
55 

49 
44 



294 



And the Ptolemaic dynasty ceased — years B. C. 30, when Egyp- 
became a province of the Roman Empire. 



66 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



Names of Roman Emperoks found in hieroglyphics on the 
ments of Egypt. 

I. Emperor Cesar Augustus, B. C. 27. 

II. " Tiberius Cesar, 

III. " Caius— Caligula— 

IV. " Tiberius Claudius Cesar Augustus 

Germanicus, 
V. " Nero Claudius Cesar Augustus 
Germanicus, 
VI. " Marcus Otho Cesar Augustus, 
VII. " Cesar Vespasian Augustus, 
VIII. " Titus Cesar Vespasian Augustus, 
IX. " Cesar Domitian Augustus, 
X. " Cesar Nerva Trajan Augustus, 
XI. " Cesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus, 
XII. " Cesar Titus Elius Adrian 

Antoninus Augustus Pius, 

XIII. " Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, 

XIV. " Lucius Verus Cesar, 
XV. " Commodus, 

XVI. " Cesar Severus Augustus, 
XVII. " Cesar Geta Augustus, 
XVIII. " CjEsar Antoninus Augustus, (Caracalla,) 



A.D. 
14 
36 

40 

54 

68 
78 
81 
97 
116 

137 
161 

180 
194 

211 



Note. Of the Roman Emperors, who ruled between Augustus and Cara- 
calla, the only names unfound in hieroglyphics, are Galba, Vitellius and 
Nerva. 



Thus from an indefinite period, prior to the year B. C. 2272, down 
to about 215 years after the Christian era, the hieroglyphical char- 
acter is proved to have been in use ; while, from the year 2272, B. 
C, modern hierology has determined the chronological series of 
Egyptian monarchs, by the translation of hieroglyphical annals. 

The Romans held Egypt from the 27th year B. C. till 395 A. D. ; 
when the sons of Theodosius the Great divided the empire ; and 
Egypt lingered under the sovereignty of the Eastern Emperors ; till, 
conquered by Aa.mer-ebn-el.As, the Valley of the Nile became a 
province of Omar's Saracenic Caliphate, in A. D. 540. In the year 
A. D. 1517 — Hegira 923 — Egypt was overrun by the Ottoman hordes 
of Sooltan Seleem, and has ever since been the spoil of the Turk : 
but, in the prophetic " Books of Hermes" it is written, 

" Et inhabitabit ^gyptum Scythus, aut Indus, aut aliquis tali»." 



END OP ANCIENT EGYPT. 



Page 28. 


2nd Column, 14 


" 30. 


1st. 


" 18 


« 30. 


1st. 


4 


' 31. 


2nd. 


« 15 


« 42. 


2nd. 


" 11 


« 43. 


1st. 


" 38 



ERRATA. 

2nd Column, 14 lines from top, for to the above, read with the above. 

a « « oj-jjjg- to this hole, read bring it to this hole. 

" bottom for, steamboats, under, read steamboats, that under. 

" " " as well, read as well as 

" " " with, read without. 

" top " it, read they. 

A gentleman, erudite in Hebrew and other Oriental languages, has kindly suggested the following emendations to the Author. 

Note, page 31 — that the name of Moses — Mosheh — being derived from the Hebrew root " to draw out," has no reference to the root " to 

anoint." 
Page 32 — that the Hebrew root Aur does not mean the Sun, but light, and Ur, or Oor, signifies flame, splendor; that Urim and Thummim, 

are not duals but plurals, and should be rendered " splendors and perfections." 
Page 42 — that the name of the Thebaid — Pathros — is not derivable from the root Pathar, to interpret; but probably represents the Coptic 

Pethouris, Terra Australis, the Southern land. 
Page 43 — that the word Matz-za, unleavened bread, is derived from the root to squeeze, to compress. 

Not to enter into an argument, I refer the critical reader to Portai,, " Les Symboles des Egyptiens compare's a ceux des Hebreux.' 
Paris 1840 — and Dr. Lamb on the Hebrew Alphabet. London, 1835. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



67 



COPIES OF TESTIMONIALS, AND EXTRACTS OF 
CORRESPONDENCE. 



To George R. Gliddon, Esq. 

Boston, February, 4, 1843. 
Sir .^Having attended your course of thirteen Lectures (some of 
us the whole, and others, parts of the course,) delivered in this city, 
on " Early Egyptian History, Archaeology, and other sub- 
jects CONNECTED WITH HlEROGLYPHICAL LITERATURE," We take 

this occasion to express the high satisfaction we have experienced — 
in common with your other auditors — in following you through the 
interesting developments made of your noble and inexhaustible sub- 
ject. 

It need not be remarked, that, until the present age, the extraor- 
dinary history and antiquities of that ever memorable country, in its 
earliest periods, have been, comparatively speaking, a tissue of fa- 
bles ; and, almost literally, enveloped in that impenetrable darkness, 
which has long been associated with the name of that people in a 
familiar proverb ; for, although the Egyptians from the earliest ages, 
like other nations, had recorded their great public events on their 
public monuments, which are still extant, yet all knowledge of the 
language of those monuments — the Hieroglyphical Language of 
Egypt — had long been lost to the world, and has but recently been 
recovered by the profound researches, which were instituted in Eng- 
land by Young — alike eminent in Science and Literature — and, in 
France, successfully prosecuted to their full development by Cham- 
pollion ; a result, which will shed a lustre upon the literary fame of 
the present age, of no less brilliancy than the most celebrated dis- 
coveries made in any of the fields of science. 

We cannot, therefore, permit the present occasion to pass, without 
testifying our gratification at having had this opportunity of hearing 
the first course of Lectwes, delivered in this country, upon the re- 
sults of those profound and interesting researches. These results 
shed new light upon the early history of man, by unfolding to our 
view, in addition to the knowledge we before possessed from the 
Scriptures, the authentic records of a great nation, and of a more 
remote epoch, than the earliest records of any people which the 
learned have hitherto made a subject of thorough and exact investi- 
gation. The impulse now given to these studies, will, we have no 
doubt, stimulate many of our intelligent and persevering scholars, 
to emulate their illustrious European predecessors in this department 
of knowledge ; and, while they extend their own fame, to add to the 
reputation of their country. 

With our cordial wishes for your success in making known, in other 
parts of the United States, the valuable and interesting results of 
Egyptian researches, and with the assurances of our personal regard, 

We are, Sir, 

Your obedient servants, 



Jno. Pickering, 
John Davis, 
Wm. Jenks, 
Charles P. Curtis, 
S. K. Lothrop, 
Asa Eaton, 
Jas. Savage, 
I. P. Davis, 



Charles Sumner, 

F. C. Gray, 

Jos. W. Ingraham, 
Alex. Young, 

G. S. Hillard, 
Geo. Hayward, 
Charles Lowell. 



Philadelphia, March 20th, 1844. 



To George R. Gliddon, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — As members of your recent class in this city, we can- 
not deny ourselves the gratification of returning you our warmest 
thanks for the pleasure and profit derived from your discourses. We 
presume, however, that a just appreciation of the importance of your 
theme, will prove far more agreeable to your feelings, than even the 
richly-merited acknowledgment due to the unvarying urbanity and 
kindness of manner, which distinguished your personal intercourse 
with your hearers. 

Permit us, then, to thank you most sincerely — rather as citizens of 
an extensive community than as mere individuals — for the efforts 
you have made to arouse the attention of the American public to 
the deeply interesting subject of Egyptian Archozology. 

To paraphrase a familiar Eastern ejaculation, " There is no Truth 
but Truth," — and it is equally true, that scepticism is deprived of all 
its weapons when truth appears, divested of the errors, with which 
it has been veiled through honest misconceptions. 

As Christians, we feel that the public is deeply indebted to you, 
for assuming the critical post of a pioneer, in the task of rendering 
popular the constantly accumulating facts by which Egyptian hiero- 
glyphic history corroborates the record of the sacred writers, and 
casts bright sunshine upon ages, institutions, men and motives, hith- 
erto but vaguely traced in the dim, deceptive moonlight of Grecian 
and Roman philosophy. 

As men, we have listened with high interest to your expose of the 
state of learning and the arts, among a people antedating all other 
exfcmt history, and the pure, though seemingly enigmatical moral- 
ity^which vindicates the dignity of human nature, even in its in- 
ftney. 



We will not pause to make a single comment upon the thousand 
interesting questions in statesmanship and public polity in the in- 
fluence of governmental systems upon the destiny of nations which 

start up in the minds of your hearers, as you proceed, apparently 
without effort or intention of your own, and render every lecture 
the subject of enduring thought. 

These things are far too grand and vast for mere epistolary no- 
tice; and we will, therefore, close with the assurance, that public 
considerations, not less than private gratification, induce us most 
heartily to wish you a prosperous career elsewhere, and a speedy re- 
turn to Philadelphia, wheie we trust the intelligence and virtue of 
the community will ever be ready to welcome you. 

We are, very respectfully, 



James Mease, 
Henry W. Ducachet, 
Peter Vanpelt, 
C. G. Childs, 
David S. Brown, 
J. Fisher Learning, 
A. D. Chaloner, 

A. D. Gillette, 
Joseph Montgomery, 
Charles Ryan, 
Thomas Ryan, 
John S. Miller, 

B. Henry, 
Josiah Randal], 
Samuel Jackson, 
S. F. Smith, 

R. D. Wood, 
Lawrence Lewis, 
Richard C. Taylor, 
John J. Smith, Jr., 
Isaiah Hacker, 
William Peter, 
Jolin G. Watmough, 
Thomas Gilpin, 
A. M. Prevost, 
Thomas Firth, 
William Morrison, 
J. S. Phillips, 
George W. Aspinwall, 



G . Emerson, 
Gavin Watson, 
Robert Kilvington, 
James Arrott, 
Colin Arrott, 
Joseph Lea, Jr., 
B. H. Coates, 
R. M. Lewis, 
Judah Dobson, 
W. J. Walter, 
H. B. Wallace, 
Thomas T. Lea, 
Thomas Sergeant, 
M. D. Lewis, 
S. W. Roberts, 
William Ashbridge, 
William S. Vaux, 
Richard Randolph, 
Samuel George Morton, 
Charles F. Becke, 
George Zantzinger, 
Edward King, 
William Zantzinger, 
W. A. Dobbyn, 
Joseph S. Lyon, 
Leonard R. Koecker, 
J. H. Markland, 
John T. Sharpless, 
Reynell Coates. 



EXTRACTS OF CORRESPONDENCE. 

- London, 1st Sept., 1843. 



Perring, — 

" Some few days ago, on the table of H. E. the Chevalier Bun- 
sen, I met with your Lectures, and confess with some little surprise 
at your new vocation. I immediately sent down to Wiley & Put- 
nam's, and was fortunate enough to obtain a copy, which I have 
gone over ; and as it contains your address, I cannot withhold my 
humble tribute of applause. It is the first attempt, that I am aware 
of, to popularize the subject of hieroglyphical literature and history 
in all its details and branches ; and the thoroughly masterly manner 
in which you have executed your task, (con amore) will be appre- 
ciated by all, and yet more especially by those who have labored in 
the same field. — for the mass of valuable information brought to- 
gether from a thousand discordant sources, is truly astonishing." 

" I have recommended your work to several 

friends, who wish to know a little truth on Ancient Egypt and its 
Archasology ; and shall advise all who visit that country to make it 
their study on the voyage," &c. 

— London, 10th Nov., 1843. 



Madden,* - 

"I am very much pleased with the work, (Ancient Egypt,) for it 
conveys in a simple and eloquent style, information which is not to 
be procured in any other way. It gave me great pleasure to find 
that the American public appreciated your exertions," &c. 

— Alexandria, 25th Nov., 1843. 



Harris, - 

" Our friend Mr. A. Tod,f presented me with your ' Ancient 
Egypt; her Monuments, Hieroglyphics, &c.,' and I thought you 
would not be displeased to receive my congratulations on the fruit 
of your industry and application, which must have been very great 
to have produced a work of so much merit. I have no doubt you 
will make yourself a name, if you pursue the path you have marked 
out for yourself. I sincerely wish you success," &c. 



Bonomi, ■ 



■ Pyramids of Gheezeh, 17th Jan'ry., 1844. 



" We are all very much pleased with the efforts you have been 
making in the cause. It is, indeed, highly creditable to you to nave 
produced such a complete and highly interesting volume on the sub- 
ject. I do not know any treatise on the subject that is likely to ad- 
vance the study of Egypt so much as yours. You have shown the 
process by which what knowledge we have has been acquired ; and 
on what clear and solid foundation it rests. You have carried your 

* Madden & Co. — Oriental Publishers, 
f Consul for the U. S. in Egypt. 



€8 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 



reader to the very margin of our knowledge ; having shown him in 
the course several alleys and branches of the great Labyrinth that 
are still unexplored, and stimulated him to pursue the study by pi- 
quant suggestions. In short, your book has done more to render the 
•ubject popular, than any work in existence," &c. 



Lbpsius, 



Karioum, le 29 Mars, 1844. 



(Junction of the White and Blue Nile.) 
"Monsieur et Collegue, 

''' Je me hate de vous accuser reception du bulletin* de la Soci£t6 
des Sciences Naturelles de Philadelphie, que vous avez bien voulu 
m' envoyer par l'entremise de Monsieur votre pere. Je vois par cela 
que cette Honorable Societe m' a fait l'honneur de mettre mon nom 
parmi ses membres correspondants. Bien sensible a cette distinction, 
que je ne saurais expliquer que par l'interet bien vif que vous pren- 
nez aux memes Etudes auxquelles je me suis livre de preference, et 
dont vous etes le representant aussi zele que savant dans le nouveau 
Monde, je vous prie de vouloir presenter mes humbles remerciemens 
a l'honorable Societe, et d' agreer en meme temps l'expression de 
ma reconnaisance envers vous meme, qui avez bien voulu transferer 
l'interet pour les etudes Egyptiennes sur celui qui voudrait les faire 

avancer autant qu'il est en son pouvoir." "J'ai 

vu par la meme feuille que vous avez fait un rapport a la Society 
sur notre Expedition scientifique. Je vous remercie pour l'interet 
quo vous y portez," &c. 



Lepsius, ■ 



Island of Phila, 15th Sept., 1844. 



" J'ai lu avec le plus grand interet les sept, premiers chapitres de 
votre cours sur l'ancienne Egypte, et je suis convaincu que vous avez 
gagne un applause general et merite de tous ceux qui ont eu l'avan- 
tage de pouvoir suivre votre cours. J'espere vivement que vous 
trouverez le temps pour continuer vos utiles recherches dans ce 
genre d'etudes ; qui, malgre la riche moisson qu' elles promettent, ont 
pourtant trouve jusqu' a present beaucoup plus d'amateurs que de 
travailleurs serieux, faute, il est vrai, en grande partie, de la difficulte 
a remonter aux vraies sources de cette science," &c. 



Walsh,* • 



Paris, May 7th, 1844. 



" Monsieur Jomard, of the Royal Library, the highest authority 
on Egyptian topics" — " rejoices in the recovery of Mr. Gliddon's 
work, which he accidentally left in Italy in the autumn, and means 
%r> read attentively without delay." — National Intelligencer. Wash- 
ington, 20th June, 1844. 

*Vide Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, July and 
August, 1843. 
*U. S. Consul, Paris. 



Birch, • 



British Museum, London, 12th May, 1844. 

" I have read with much pleasure your interesting Lectures o* 
Egyptian Antiquities, in the United States, which ought to have the 
effect of awakening the public attention there to the researches go- 
ing on in the Old World. They have been very popular here, as I 
dare say your publishers (Madden & Co.) can inform you ; and de- 
servedly so, since they place the matter in a clear and distinct point 
of view in all its bearings," &c. 

Lane, Cairo, 15th July, 1844. 

" I congratulate you most sincerely on the success which has at- 
tended you in America, and join with many others in thanking you 
for much very valuable information," &c. 

- Juddah, (Jlrabia,) 4th Aug., 1844. 



Fresnel,* - 

" I am indebted to your " Ancient Egypt" for the little positive 
knowledge I now possess on the subject which you have treated with 
so much perspicuity, " verve," and " disinvoltura." .... 
" I must now acknowledge, that you have given me a real treat in 
my desert, and have inspired me with a lively interest for a branch 
of science, which I had neglected for no other reason, than that it 
was not my own branch, my own department ; and " qu' a moins 
d'etre de fer, (which, you know, is not my case,) on ne peut pas 

suffire a tout " Go on, my dear Sir, and " agreez 

mes sinceres felicitations," &c. 

Extracts from the Correspondence of my Father, the late John Gliddon, 
U. S. Consul for Egypt. 

" Cairo, 12th October, 1843. — "The book is characterized here as 
learned, modest, and most useful." 18th November. — " Among 
the Elite of Cairo you have passed the ordeal. Your work is con- 
sidered a most opportune compendium, and a most acceptable vade- 
mecum.' 1 '' 14th February, 1844. — " Soon afterwards I exchanged 
visits with Sir J. G. Wilkinson, and you will be gratified to hear, 
that he confirmed all that had reached mc from Judge Jay and Mr. 
Harris concerning your labors ; and when I took leave, he expressly 
charged me with his congratulations and kind regards." . . . 

. . . " Messrs. Wilkinson, Briggs, Walne, Bonomi, Lane, 
Traill, Lieder, &c, indicate your work to all travellers in search of 
hieroglyphical information, and the consequence is, that your 
' Chapters' 1 are taken off the table of the ' Egyptian Society,' as it 
were, by the dozen," &c. 



Baltimore, 15th March, 1845. 



George R. Gliddon. 



"French Consul at Juddah — Red Sea. 



APPENDIX. 

— ~~+^*"~' — 

NEW SERIES 

OF 

ARCHAEOLOGICAL LECTURES ON ANCIENT EGYPT, 

ILLUSTRATED BY 

COPIOUS AND SPLENDID PICTORIAL DIAGRAMS, 

AND 

GENUINE ANTIQUITIES, 



COMPRISING 



THE LATEST HIEttOGLYPHICAL, AND COGNATE MONUMENTAL DISCOVERIES, 

BY 



GEORGE R. GLIDDON, 



Member of the " Egyptian Society" of Cairo — Corresponding Member of the " United States Naval 
Lyceum," Brooklyn, New York — Correspondent of the " Academy of Natural Sciences," Phila- 
delphia — Corresponding Member of the " National Institute," Washington — Member of 
the "American Oriental Society," Boston — Honorary Member of the "His- 
torical Society of Pennsylvania" — Correspo'nding Member of the " Syro- 
Egyptian Society" of London — Corresponding Member of the 
"Societe Orientale de France" — Corresponding Mem- 
ber of the "Institute of ArchjEological 
Correspondence of Rome," 

AUTHOR OF 

"A Memoir on the Cotton of Egypt" — "An Appeal to the Antiquaries of Europe on the destruction 

of the Monuments of Egypt," London, 1841 — "A Series of Chapters on Early 

Egyptian History, Archaeology, and other subjects connected with 

hleroglyphical literature," new york, 1843, 

AND FORMERLY 

UNITED STATES CONSUL FOR CAIRO, IN EGYPT. 



: Plurimas terras peragravi, disjunctissima quceque lustrans; cceli solique genera plurima vidi, eruditos homines 

permultos audivi; jffigyptiorum, qui Harpedonaptje (a^ttthovantai. — Clem. Alex. Strom. I. 

=j?nan — |1K — T£nn = HRPD— AUK— HPTE=" Colui che largisce la verita della luce;'" i. e. the Illumi- 
nati — Michelangelo Land, Paris, 1846.) nominantur, apud hos autem postremo multos per annos pere- 
grinatus sum." 

Democriti Abderit.e Operum fragmenta — p. 228. Ed. Mullachius, Berlin, 1843. 

Philadelphia, October, 1846. 



In announcing his return to Philadelphia, after a twelvemonth's sojourn in Europe, with the intention of resuming 
his Lectureship throughout the United States, Mr. Gliddon begs leave to preface his new Courses witfi the following 
remarks : 



Four winters have elapsed since the writer, whose twenty-three 
year's residence in the Valley of the Nile naturally led him to take 
interest in the progress of local researches, commenced (at Boston, 
1842-3,) in the novel form of illustrated and popular Lectures, the 
exposition of those discoveries in hieroglyphical literature, consequent 
upon the memorable French and English Expeditions to Egypt in 
1798 — 1802, which, impressed by Napoleon's genius, and fore- 
shadowed in the noble folios " Description de 1'Egypte," have called 
forth in this second quarter of the XlXth century the lavish expen- 
ditures of enlightened Governments, Societies, and individuals, the 
enthusiastic investigation of the most illustrious Savans of the age, 
and the intellectual admiration of all civilized communities. 

The experiment attempted by the writer, that of popularizing, 



through direct and oral address, independently of the patronage or 
aid of Governments or Academies, to the comprehension of the edu- 
cated masses, themes so fraught with interest to the past history and 
future development of humanity, does not appear to have been tried, in 
any country, since the Olympic era of the Halicarnassian. To this 
day the oral exposition of hierogrammatical science is confined in 
Europe to regal collegiate precincts ; and it is at Paris, Florence, and 
Berlin alone where the student or general hearer has hitherto gathered 
Egyptian instruction from the incomparable discourses of a Cham- 

POLLIOX IE JeUN'E, a RoSEI.LIMr,aLETHOXNi;, aRAOUL-PiOCHETTE, 

or a Rjchahd Lepsius. In England, to this very hour, there are 
no public lectures whatever on Egyptian Archaeology : and the fact 
that many thousands of America's citizens have spontaneously attended 



Discourses upon Hieroglyphics, in some European circles is yet un- 
believed, in others it is a topic of mingled wonder and applause.* 

It was upon the diffusion of education among the people of the 
United States and their thirst for knowledge, fostered by Institutional 
freedom in this vast Republic, that the writer, stimulated by the 
advice and the effective aid of a few personal friends, among whom 
the name of Richard K. Haight,! of New York, must always 
stand preeminent, grounded his hopes and calculations ; nor, whilst he 
merely claimed to be the popular expositor of the profound researches 
of others, without the slightest pretension to aught but as much 
fidelity of narrative as lay within the compass of his reach or abili- 
ties, has he ever doubted, that the inquiring intelligence of the New 
World would be found fully equal to the appreciation of discoveries 
that for half a century have constituted the unceasing study, the in- 
creasing attention, and the herculean labors of the greatest men and 
nations of the Old. 

Such was the writer's conception when he landed in America in 
January, 1842. Three successive winters, 1842-3, 1843-4, 1844-5, 
of practical experience have demonstrated, that, so far as the broad 
principle of American intellectual cultivation be concerned, he has not 
in his anticipations been mistaken. His Lectures upon Egyptian 
Hierology have been consecutively listened to by audiences embracing 
many thousands of the population, from Portsmouth, N. H., to Sa- 
vannah, Geo., including repeatedly the larger Atlantic Cities, Boston, 
New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Rich- 
mond and Charleston; while, at Boston, his course of 12 Lectures 
on Egyptian Archaeology, repeated, before the " Lowell Institute" in 
1843-4, was attended by above five thousand persons. The sale, in 
less than three years, of 18,000 copies of the Chapters, presented 
gratuitously by the Author to the American Public, and the una- 
bated demand for new impressions of this Introduction to the study 
of Hieroglyphics,! are sterling facts in proof of the popular desire 
manifested by the public of the United States, to become familiar 
with those splendid results and triumphant discoveries that insure 
immortality to the School founded by Champollion. 

Taking our departure from the •' Precis du Systeme Hierogly- 
phique des Anciens Egyptiens," put forth by Champollioit le 
Jeune, at Paris in 1824, we can now realize, after the toils of twenty- 
two years, the resuscitation, from the tomb of fifteen centuries, of the 
language of the long-buried denizens of Egypt, and witness in the 
year 1846 the facile translation, by living French, English, German, 
and Italian Hierologists, of any and all monumental legends, Paint- 
ings, Sculptures and Papyri, scattered along the " Sacred River," 
from the shores of the Mediterranean to the confluence of the White 
and Blue Niles beyond the far-famed, if modem Meroe, on the torrid 
confines of Nigritia. And beholding, as we now do with our own 
eyes, the progressive reconstruction of the time-honored edifice of 
Pharaonic antiquity, from autochthonous records with the events 
themselves coetaneous, our minds have awakened to the comprehen- 
sion of the reason why the advancement of a given country in 
Egyptian learning has become, as it were, the standard measure of 
its literary reputation in archaeological and cognate sciences. 

Spurred to emulation, under the penalty of being distanced in the' 
race, by the glorious example of France, the Governments of Tus- 
cany, Prussia and England, and many of the less affluent states of 
Italy and Germany, have latterly been sending Commission after 
Commission to explore and re-explore the venerable Ruins of 
" Mitzraim," or are collecting and depositing under the aegis of Euro- 
pean security, in gigantic national Museums, the hoary vestiges of 
primeval Nilotic civilization. Lepsius and the Prussians have but just 
returned from Egypt and Ethiopia, laden with treasur.es gathered du- 
ring three years of unequalled and most successful laboriousness — and 
yet, Phisse, chief of a new Scientific Mission, is on the point of re- 
turning from Paris to the same inexhaustible regions, in order that 
French science may still maintain its preeminence in the march of 
hicroglyphical discovery. 



Paris, London, Berlin, St. Petersburgh, Ley den, Amsterdam, Stock- 
holm, Copenhagen, Munich, Vienna, Turin, Milan, Florence, Rome, 
and Naples, independently of minor cities and of countless private 
cabinets in Europe and Egypt, boast at the present day of Egyptian 
antiquarian possessions, to obtain and to preserve some of which mil- 
lions of dollars have been expended, and each city rejoices in the 
noble rivalry of its respective hieroglyphical students to decipher 
and expound fragments, whose no-longer recondite meaning serves 
to illumine every department of human knowledge. "As regards 
those eminent men who have won a brilliant place in the career of 
Egyptian studies, it is out of the question here to analyze their books ; 
it suffices that it should be known that all have marched boldly 
along the road opened by Champollion, and that the science which 
owed its first illustration to Young, to the Cbampollions, to the 
Humboldts, to Salvolini, to Rosellini, to Nestor L'hote, and of which 
the reality has been proclaimed without reservation by Sylvestre de 
Sacy and by Arago, counts at this day as adepts fervent and convinced 
men* such as Messrs. Letronne, Ampere, Biot, Merimee, Prisse, E. 
Burnouf, Lepsius, Bunsen, Peyron, Gazzera,Barucchi, ****** 
Leemans," Pauthier, Lanci, Birch, Wilkinson, Harris, Cullimore,' 
Sharpe, Hincks, Osburn, Bonomi, &c, &c. " The friends and the 
enemies of Champollion's system are now well known."j " Tant pis 
pour qui ne se rangera pas avec ces hommes celebres du coje de 
1'evidence et de la justice."* 

The specification of the works, national and individual, published 
and forthcoming from the press of Europe on Hierological Literature, 
Chronology, History, Arts, Sciences, and Philosophy, would alone 
swell a quarto volume, as may be inferred from the subjoined list of 
Authors, whose researches have been consulted in the preparation of 
Mr. Gliddon's Lectures, and whose works are to be found, on this 
side of the water, in the private library of Mr. Haight at New 
York, to the munificence and friendship of whom the writer owes the 
advantage of access to this unique archaeological collection. And yet, 
withal, if in transatlantic America, space, time, and the nature of 
things, have hitherto precluded similar pecuniary efforts to keep pace 
with the antiquarian ambition of European communities, it is a 
fact, as remarkable in itself as easy of demonstration, that there is a 
more widely-diffused and general knowledge of the progress of Egyp- 
tian discovery, and a more popular desire manifested to possess 
correct ideas upon the results of Egyptological inquiry, than in many 
parts of Europe, where the public mind still lies torpid in the very 
midst of the discoveries and the discoverers: and it was to qualify him- 
self for the better development of these subjects, in the endeavor to do 
justice to this growing desire, that the writer, suspending his Lectures 
during the last winter, proceeded to Europe to collect, by personal 
application at the fountain sources of Paris and London, the most 
authentic materials, and the latest hieroglyphical discoveries. 

During five month's residence at the French metropolis with Mr. 
Haight, whose intimacy with many of the most distinguished Savans 
and Societies of France afforded to the writer an infinitude of plea- 
surable advantages ; availing himself of the influential kindness of his 
accomplished friend Mr. Robert Walsh, U. States Consul, to whom 
he is indebted for manifold facilities ; and happy in the auspicious 
rencontre with his old Cairo-colleagues and Eastern fellow-travel- 
lers, Prisse,§ the rescuer (from otherwise inevitable perdition had it 
remained at Thebes) of the "Ancestral Hall of Karnac," Fresnel ,|| 
the decipherer of the Himyaritic Inscriptions of Southern Arabia, 
and Botta,1 the resuscitator of time-interred Nineveh, who took 
pleasure in explaining their several discoveries, and in introducing 
him to their respective scientific friends, the writer has enjoyed from 
the liberal and frank complaisance of the Savans of France so many 
favours, that in his present inability to express to each his 
grateful obligations, he must content himself by italicizing among 
the following authorities quoted in his lectures, the names of those 
to whose personal kindness he is most indebted, as well in London 
as at Paris. 



Abeken, Ampere, Barucchi, Biot, Birch, Bockh, Bonomi, Botta, Boudin, Bunsen, Burton, Cahen, Cailleaud, Champollion- 
Figeac, Cherubini, Cottrell, Cullimore, D'Avezac, D'Eichthal, De Saulcy, Felix, Flandin, Fresnel, Gazzera, Goury, Hamilton, 
Harris, Hengstenberg, Henry, Hincks, Hodgson, Horeau, Hoskins, Jomard, Jones, Lanci, Lane, Leemans, Lenormant, Lepsius, 
Lesueur, Letroitne, L'Hote, Linant, Matter, Migliarini, Morton, Munke, Osburn, Parthey, Pauthier, Perring, Pettigrew, Peyron, 
Portal, Prichard, Prisse, Prudhoe, Quatremere, Raoul-Rochette, Rosellini, Salt, Salvolini, Schwarze, Sharpe, Tattam, Taylor, 
Ungarelli, Vcnel, Vyse, Wilkinson, Young, &c. &c. &c. 

A constant attendant during the winter at the invaluable " Cours 
d'ArcheoIogie Egyptienne" of Letronne at the College de France, 
and of Raoul-Rochette at the Bibliotheque Royale, and a frequent 



♦Vide— Revue ilea Deux mondes, June 15, 1846; De Saulcy, " De l'Etude 
des Hieroglyphes— and August 1, ISMS, Ampere, " Rtcherches en Egypte et 
en Nubie." Cunferre likewise, Southern Literary Messenger, Richmond, 
Virginia, July, 1845, — " A Sketch of the progress of Archaeological Science in 
America;" and the Reports aud Notices of Mr. Gliddon's Lectures in the Ame- 
rican Press for the last four years, particularly in the Boston 'transcript, Phi- 
ladelphia Ledger, and Baltimme Sun. 

t See De Saitlcy's article above quoted— page 989. Gliddon's Chapters, 
New York, 1843; Morton'6 Crania JEgyptiaca, Philadelphia, 1844; and Jar- 
vis' Introduction to the History of the Church, New York, 1845. 

JThe present Proprietors of" Ancient Egypt, her Monuments, Hierogly- 
phics, History and Archixology," are Taylor & Co., No. 2, Astor House, New 
York— Price 25ctB, 



♦Aside from heartfelt gratitude for kindnesses innumerable with which, du- 
ring the last four years, this amiable and erudite gentleman honored the Wri- 
ter, justice to the illustrious depar'ed demands, that the revered name of an 
American Suvau, the late John Pickering of Boston, should not be omitted in 
designating the earliest and most qualified appreciators of the deeds of Toung 
and Champollion. See, besides many anterior papers, "Journal of the American 
Oriental Society"— No. 1, Boston, 1843. Nor, among living occidental students 
who are successfully applying hieroglyphical discoveries In the enlargement of 
science, must we forget Messrs. Samuel George Morton of Philadelphia, 
ConEN and McCulloh of Baltimore, Hodgson of Savannah, Charles Picker- 
ing of Boston, and Nott of Mobile. 

t De Saulcy, the decipherer of the Phcenician Monument of Thugga, and of 
the Egyptian Demotic Texts — Revue des deux mondes, June, 1846- p. 983. 

t Ampere — ut supra — p. 392. 

$ Conferre Revue Archtologique — Paris, Avril, 1845: 

|| " Journal Jsiatiquc — Paris, 1846. 

fl '• Lettres de M. Botta sur ses Decouvertes a Khorsabad, pres de 
Ninive— Paris, 1845. M. Botta i* the son of the celebrated Italian author of 
J "Storia dell' Independenza dell' America." 



visiter of the several Museums and Libraries that adorn the "World's 
centre of science," the writer has received instruction on subjects that 
heretofore lay beyond his attainment, and which he will endeavour 
to embody in his future American discourses. The summer of his 
absence was spent in studies in London,where, guided by the generous 
and inestimable counsel of Birch, the English hierologist "par 
excellence," the writer prepared those essays with which he pro- 
poses to commence his present Courses in this country; whilst the 
encouraging countenance of H. E. Chev. Bunsen, who graciously 
permitted his perusal of the English MS. translation of the "^Egyp- 
tens stelle in der Weltgeschichte," forthcoming from the accomplished 
pen of Mn. Cottrell ; and more than all, the personal rencontre with 
Dr. Lepsius, fresh from the regions of his stupendous Nilotic discove- 
ries, are episodes in the writer's wanderings as grateful to his indivi- 
dual feelings, as of durable value to the accuracy of the scientific facts 
that will be promulgated through his public lectures. 

To sum up in a few words. He has had free access in London 
and Paris to MSS., documents, books and portfolios, and has received 
verbal and epistolary communication of various archaeological mate- 
rials, many far in advance of European publication, and of some that 
will not be forthcoming *br years. He has brought with him the 



most recent works, plates, &c, bearing upon Egyptology — more 
than half of which have not before been introduced into the 
United States. He has established relations with London, Paris 
and Berlin, that will insure him the most rapid intimation of all 
future Egyptian " Nouveautes Archeologiques," while by correspon- 
dence with the several students of hierology throughout Egypt and 
Europe, he is promised permanent support and prompt communi- 
cation of the freshest intelligence. Through the considerate friend- 
ship of the learned hierologist, Mr. A. C. Harris, of Alexandria, 
he already possesses the nucleus of such a collection of Egyptian 
Antiquities as will serve to illustrate his oral Lectures with genuine 
specimens of Ancient Art. Part of this collection, bearing chiefly 
upon the mummification and funereal ceremonies of Egypt, has 
already arrived, and the remainder is in process of collection and 
shipment to the United States. These curious relics will lend a 
more popular interest to the discourses which he contemplates deliver- 
ing in the larger cities of the United States, and the following sum- 
mary catalogue will afford an idea of the. number, variety, and cost- 
liness of the Pictorial Illustrations that will embellish the writer's 
Lecture-rooms, and elucidate each question as it occurs — 



nit it iff sip ie a ip n©w§ 

BRILLIANTLY COLORED, AND COVERING MANY THOUSAND SQUARE FEET OF SURFACE. 

Hieroglyphical, Hieratic, Enchorial, Greek and Roman Texts, Tablets, Steles, Inscriptions, &c, from the Sculptures, Paintings 
and Papyri, including the Rosetta Stone, the Funereal Ritual, the Turin Genealogical Papyrus, the Tablet of Abydos, the Ancestral 
Chamber of Karnac, the Zodiac of Dendera, and all important historical documents of the Egyptians from the earliest times to the 
Christian era. A complete series of all the Pyramids, aud pyramidal monuments of Memphis, &c. Panoramic views of the 
Temples, Palaces, and remarkable Tombs, in Egypt and Nubia — Tableaux embracing the entire series of documents and paintings 
illustrating the arts, sciences, manners, customs and civilization of the Ancient Egyptians — Plates illustrative of the art of 
embalmment, human and animal, Sarcophagi, Mummies, funeral cerements, ornaments, and doctrinal features of Nilotic Sepulture— 
besides genuine specimens of a great variety of the Antiquarian Relics themselves — Fac-simile copies of the most splendid Tableaux found 
in the Temples and Tombs along the Nile — Portraits of the Pharaohs in their chariots, and royal robes — Queens of Egypt in their 
varied and elegant costumes— Likenesses of 48 Sovereigns of Egypt, from Amunoph the 1st, about B. C. 1800, down to the Ptolemies, 
and ending with Cleopatra, B. C. 29, taken from the Sculptures — Priests and Priestesses offering to all the Deities of Egyptian 
Mythology— Battle scenes on the Monuments of every epoch— Egyptian, Asiatic and African Ethnology, elucidating the conquests, 
maritime and caravan intercourse, commerce and political relations of the Egyptians with Nigritia, Abyssinia, Libya, Canaan, 

Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Persia, Central Asia, &c. &c. — Crania iEgyptiaca Negros and other 

African families, of every epoch — Scenes supposed to relate to the Hebrew captivity, &c. — Processions of Foreign Nations tributary to the 
Pharaohs — Plans, geographical maps, topographical charts and paintings, exhibiting the Country and the Architecture of Egypt. In 
short, Diagrams of every kind, illustrating every variety of Egyptian subjects, during a period of human history far exceeding 3000 
years, and terminating with the Romans in the Hid century A. D. — To these will be added each and every newly-discovered subject 
of interest as it presents itself in future explorations; together with all the most valuable hierogrammatical Books which are or may 
be published in elucidation of the philology, &c. &c, of Egypt, so that in no department of Egyptian science will the critical or 
cursory attendant on Mr. Gliddon's Lectures find any desideratum wanting. 



For the subjects chosen as the themes of the writer's future discourses, 
and for relative specifications of time, place, terms, &c. reference is 
made to the Daily Papers, no less than to the Programmes, which 
will announce with all details, in each city, the several Courses of 
Egyptian archsfological lectures Mr. Gliddon is preparing to deliver 
in due order and season. 

And finally, Mr. Gliddon must ever refer the curious who desire 
more critical information on Egyptian literature than can be embo- 
died in desultory and popular lectures, to the little pamphlet, " An- 
cient Egypt," (with the sale of which the author, having presented 
it to the public, never had any pecuniary connexion,) wherein, for 
the insignificant cost of 25 cents, the general reader can glean the 
history of hieroglyphical studies, together with the works to be con- 
sulted, up to the close of 1842. Since that year, as Mr. Gliddon 
will explain in his oral lectures, discovery has been proceeding with 
giant strides. During the last four years the aspect of primeval his- 
tory, owing mainly to Lepsius, has undergone great changes. The 
advance made in monumental Chronology, has superseded much, 
and has greatly extended portions of those views of antiquity here- 
tofore followed by the Champollion-School, based upon the arrange- 
ment of Rosellini for dates prior to the commencement of the 18th 
Dyn. of Diospolitans, taken by modern hierologists at the 16th to 
18th centuries before our Christian era. These points have formed 
the critical study of the writer, and their consideration will not be 
omitted in his contemplated lectures, which will be found to keep 



pace with the continual development of hieroglyphical researches. 
The era of Menes, the first Pharaoh of Egypt, that in Mr. Gliddon's 
Chapters of 1842, was estimated approximately at B. C. 2750, a date 
which the writer's subsequent lectures on the Pyramids showed to 
be no longer tenable, has receded into the gloom of primordial time : 
nor until Lepsius publishes at Berlin in the ensuing winter the 
results of his discoveries fin Das Buch der iEgyptischcn Konige, eine 
chronologische Zusammenstellung aller Namen der ^Egyptischen 
Konige und ihrer Verwandtschaft, von der Gotterdynastie und 
Menes an bis Caracalla,) is it possible to do more than treat in gene- 
ral terms of the remote epochs of the first XII Dynasties of Manetho 
(See Table of Dynasties, Chapters, p. 49. ) This important question 
of the Manethonian Dynasties was made the subject of a Concours 
by the " Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres."* Monsieur 
Lesueur in the present summer has had the distinguished honor ot 
winning the prize, but as his work had not appeared last August, 
the writer is enabled only to mention that M. L. informed him ver- 
bally that his results for the era of Menes reach tfie 58th cen- 
tury B. C. 

Similar erudite opinions on the involved question of the first 
Egyptian Pharaoh have long been familiar to the readers of Cham- 
pollion-Fioeac, Lenormant, and other continental hierologists. 
The following new works of the day point out the pending state 
of hierological inquiry into the primeval ages of humanity, viz : 



Bockh — Berlin, 1845," — Manetho und die Hundssternperiode," 

Henry — Paris, 1846, — L'Egypte Pharaonique," 

Barucchi, — Turin, 1845, — "Discorsi critici sopra la Chronologia Egizia," 
Bunsen, — Hamburg, 1845,—" iEgyptens Stelle in der Weltgeschichte," 



Date of Menes. 

Years B. C. 5702 

« " 5303 

" " 4890 

" " 3643 



* " Faire 1' examen critique de la succession des'dynastiet egyptlennes, d' aprts les textes historiques et lei monument natlonaux."— Paris, 1844 



4 



The discussion of the relative nature and claims of the above and 
other works is reserved for the proposed Lectures, with the sole re- 
mark, that while he will adopt for common chronological purposes 
the minimum system of Chev. Bunsen, the writer is aware, owing 
to the hints generously supplied him by Dr. Lepsius, that the extra- 
ordinary facts and unexpected discoveries resulting from the recent 
Prussian explorations around the Pyramids of Memphis (effected by 
Dr. Lepsius since Chev. Bunsen's "Egypt's place in the World's 
History," went to press,) will carry the age of Menks some centuries 
beyond B. C. 3643, backed by the incontrovertible testimony of the 
Pyramidal monuments. 



Awaiting, in common with the universal public, the forthcoming 
historical revelations of the Prussian Scientific Mission, the critical 
investigations of Mr. Birch in England, and the future discoveries 
of M. Prissf. in Egypt, the writer takes this opportunity to an- 
nounce for publication, next year, the following work, wherein the 
whole of these Egyptian data, being the most authentic and ancient 
portion of the history of Thirty-Three Nations, from China to Iceland 
inclusive, will receive embodiment : 



CHEONOS. 

OUTLINE 

OF ' 

A GRAND CHRONOLOGICAL ATLAS, 

PRESENTING 

THE PARALLEL HISTORIES 

OF THE 

EAST AND THE WEST, 

OR 

A SYNOPTICAL AND SYNCHRONOUS 
TABULATION 

OF 

ORIENTAL and OCCIDENTAL 

EYENTS, 

PROI THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DEATH OP NAPOLEON. 

(Based upon the latest Geological, Geographical, Ethnological, Archaeological, Monumental, 
Biblical, and other researches, and covering above 400 Pages, folio. 

OFFERED 

TO THE 

CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

BY 

HENRY VENEL, 

(CITIZEN OF SWITZERLAND,) 
AS A TRIBUTE OF ADMIRATION AND RESPECT. 



Translated from the Author's original and unpublished French Manuscript, and 

Edited, with annotations, by 

GE0RGE»R, GLIDDON, 



•~+f*+*0O0O00O0 WW*" 



Ky Prospectuses with all explanatory details will be issued as soon as the arrangements for publication are 
adequately matured. P 



PROSPECTUS OF A NEW VOLUME. 



NEW-YORK ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE 

(JHf f iterator* ana 2lrt, 
EDITED BY LAWRENCE LABREE, 

AND PUBLISHED BY 

WILLIAM TAYLOR, NO. 2 ASTOR HOUSE. NEW-YORK, 

AND TAYLOR, WILDE & CO., JARVIS" BUILDINGS, BALTIMORE, Md. AND WASHINGTON, D. C. 

The SECOND VOLUME of the "ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE" will be commenced 
with the May number, and will be published about the fifteenth of April, and the success which 
has so far attended our enterprize has determined us to spare nothing that will insure an increased 
patronage. The large edition printed on the first volume was exhausted on the publication of 
the fourth number. 

Our new volume will be commenced with a much larger edition, to secure for subscribers 
complete sets, and will possess 

Great improvements will be made in our Engravings, giving 

four sPMjEjrnm steel fejites'. 

in each number, and a variety of finely executed 

ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD! 

The letter-press will be of a high and refined order, original and selected, consisting of Romance, 
Historical Sketches, Poetry, Essays, Reviews, Biography, &c, &c. Our selections will be 
mostly from sources beyond the reach or means of the general reader, and no pains or expense 
will be spared to make it worthy the attention of every one. 

The Magazine will be handsomely printed on Butler's superfine paper, with bold beautiful 
type, and each number will contain 

SIXTY-FOUR LARGE OCTAVO PAGES! 

making two elegant volumes a year of 768 pages, (384 each,) illustrated with 

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independent of the numerous illustrations on wood. 

As a Lady's zxd. Gentleman's Magazine, it may be welcomed by, and prove an agreeable 
companion to, the^nost fastidious. 

Arrangements have been made to procure original translations from some of the most popular 
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" Illustrated Magazine," as will be seen by the following : — 

The Journal of Commerce says : " The literary contents are of the most interesting character." 

The Rambler says : " It is destined to be the Magazine of the country." 

It is got up in very elegant style, type, paper, engravings — all good. * * It will prove a pow- 
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Each number contains four gems of the old or new masters, besides some half a score of wood- 
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It will be a favorite for all those who look for choice pictorials. — N. Y Sunday Atla* 

Of its literary contents we need not speak, unless to say that they are " increasing ricn. 

[ Crystal Fount. 

One of the largest and handsomest magazines now published. — Keesville, (iV. Y.) Repub. 

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work.— Park Benjamin's Western Continent. 

Those who wish a first-rate table companion, must obtain the New-York Illustrated Magazine. 
. [Barre, (Mass.) Patriot. 

It contains four [steel] enp^vlngs, and a large number of wood cuts, besides sixty-four pages 
of excellent reading matt^ . — Phila. Chronicle. 

One of the pleasante: . periodicals of light literature published in this country. 

[Portland Bulletin. 

Numerous other compliments might be cited, had we room. 

fee^ Agents, and persons wishing to commence with the new volume, are requested to send in their 
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Terms. — Yearly subscription, $3 , two copies, $>5 ; or five copies (to one address) $10. 

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W« will exchange with such Editors as copy the above, and notice. 



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